Last weekend, as I was mowing my lawn and staring longingly at a garden that may never produce a harvest, I began thinking about the changes taking place around me.
My garden was hit twice with hail in the last several weeks; a surprising new trend in weather patterns. And, if hail is not enough to jolt a garden into retreat, there are the countless days of rain with little sunshine.
I began to think about all of the animal adaptations and survival techniques that have occurred, and are occurring, all around us. One adaptation is called mimicry.
Take the clever viceroy butterfly, for example. Mimicry in the animal kingdom is a phenomenon where one organism tricks another into thinking it is something that it’s not.
This fools predators into associating it with a poisonous or bad tasting species. The monarch butterfly is sometimes called the "milkweed butterfly" because its larvae eat the plant and therefore absorb the poisonous toxins which it contains.
This makes the monarch a bad choice for dinner. The viceroy butterfly, however, is apparently quite delicious to some species and has evolved to mimic and look like the poisonous monarch butterfly so that predators will avoid it. Clever.
There are many animals that have learned to camouflage themselves to blend in with their environments, thereby making them more difficult prey.
There are certain flies that mimic the appearance of bumblebees, insects that look like sticks, moths that resemble hummingbirds, and caterpillars that look like leaves, just to name a few.
The tomato hornworm caterpillar blends right in with its object of affection and goes unnoticed until most of your tomato plants have been eaten.
The killdeer bird has the ability to fake a broken wing to deter predators and will appear hurt to lure a threat away from its offspring.
Chicks are born with their eyes open and are able to run almost immediately.
My personal favorite is the basilisk lizard, abundant in Central America. After living in Costa Rica, I took a particular interest in these cute lizards (well, they are actually 2-3 feet long) and how they can walk on water.
Basilisks have long toes on their rear feet with flaps of skin between their toes that unfurl in the water, increasing surface area. When fleeing from a predator, they rapidly churn their legs, open the webbing between their toes, and slap their feet hard against the water, creating a tiny air pocket that keeps them from sinking.
They can move along a surface of water for 15 feet or more. Obviously, the basilisk’s water-walking agility is a result of adaptation and a necessary means of survival.
And who hasn’t seen a white-tailed deer flip its tail up in the air in a frenzy as it runs away? This is to warn the other deer that it senses danger. The white "flag" of the tail is also supposed to distract the predator so that the deer can make a quick get-away. Think about all of the generations of deer that learned this technique through trial-and-error, and it apparently has worked to their advantage.
There are so many examples of how animals, insects, plants, and even humans have adapted in order to survive.
Next time you are out for a walk enjoying all that summer has to offer (is it really summer?), take a minute to ask yourself why an animal behaves the way it does or why a plant grows the way it does.
Often times, it is the direct result of a threat and the action is a survival technique. Nature certainly has a way of keeping us guessing, so learn as much as you can about the world around you.
Lissa Stark works for the Bennington County Regional Commission. She serves on the board of supervisors of the Bennington County Conservation District, whose mission is to promote rural livelihoods and protect natural resources in southwestern Vermont. This time of year, she enjoys traveling the backroads on her motorcycle, to avoid traffic and enjoy a little of the scenery that Vermont has to offer. Web site at www.bccdvt.org
This column appeared in the Bennington Banner in July 2009, as one of the BCCD's Conservation Currents pieces, a bi-weekly feature written by BCCD board and staff members since August 2006.