Post 1: My research

"Basic research is like shooting an arrow into the air and, where it lands, painting a target." Homer Adkins

As an adaptation to hide from its predator, I learnt that camouflage has proven to be very effective. Animals such as the zebra, leopards, chameleons and polar bear have used camouflage mechanisms to thrive and still live on till now. As a matter of fact, the reindeer, being the largest existing species of its kind, utilizes camouflage for defense from its predators.

Therefore, I decided to research on camouflage mechanisms. I wanted to aid my organism with one of this so that it can fulfill its role effectively in the food chain by sustaining an optimum level of its species and not being wiped out completely by its predator. Firstly, I ventured deeper into the types of camouflage. I discovered about various methods such as background matching, self-shadow concealment and transparency.

Background matching, as we all know, it widely used by many animals such as chameleons and stick insects. Following are some photos that I saw along the way when looking up about this type of camouflage. According to the Cambridge University Press, background matching refers to “where the appearance generally matches the colour, lightness and the pattern of one (specialist) or several (compromise) background types”. This is what I gained from reading excerpts of the book “Animal Camouflage: Mechanisms and Function”. Similarly, there was a greater deal of knowledge I gained from this book about the other types of camouflage. The one that caught my attention were self-shadow concealment and transparency of the body.

Self-shadow concealment is said to be “where directional light, which would lead to the creation of shadows, is cancelled out by countershading”. Initially, when I encountered this term, I was unable to comprehend and visualize how this method worked. As a result, I went to search up on examples of animals, which used this mechanism and also images of this method at work. These are some of the photographs that aided me in letting me gain a holistic definition of this method so that I could apply it in future.

Transparency, as suggested by the name itself, is where the body of the animal is transparent. Transparent connotes that the body of the animal allows most light to pass through. Hence, the predator would also not be able to spot the existence of this creature.

Having researched on these, from my previous findings, I had to strictly rule out two of the mechanisms, as it would not maximize the beneficiary of that adaptation. These two are self-shadow concealment and transparency. Acquainting my organism with one of these would not work well and also pose a certain disadvantage as well.

As for the self-shadow concealment, this method would not be able to function at all in the Alpine Tundra biome. Some research on the environmental conditions of this biome, told me that trees cannot grow on the mountains due to the high altitude. Moreover, temperature in the Alpine Tundra are mostly below the freeing point and hence, most water bodies would be frozen, not allowing much for aquatic organisms. Self-shadow concealment only effectively functions when elevated on a tree or underwater. Hence, this mechanism would not work for the organism in the Alpine Tundra.

On the other hand, I was thinking of making this feature have more than one use. For instance, make the skin colour such that it would help in both camouflaging and for keeping warm. If the body were to be transparent, it would only serve the purpose as a camouflaging agent. However, if the skin of the organism were to be a dark colour, which make the organism merge into the surroundings, it would also be able to absorb more heat to keep the organism warm in this extremely cold environment.

After much contemplation, considering all of these possibilities, I have decided to use the background matching mechanism for the organism to hide from its predators. As a result, I plan to use dark green for the skin of the organism since it would blend in with the foliage during summer in the Alpine Tundra. Due to the fact that darker colours absorb more heat since they reflect less light, this dark green would also aid in absorbing maximum heat possible to keep the organism warm since summer temperature are also low.

This led me to the next adaptation required for the organism – its camouflaging agent during the winter. In winter, most of the surroundings will be covered with snow and ice. Hence, the biome would generally look as if it is completely white. The Alpine Tundra during winter would look something like this.

In such a situation, the green skin of the organism would just make it all the more conspicuous, over this white background. Hence, I went to look up on what would serve the same purposes as the green skin. The new outer covering would also need to keep the organism warm.

These are a few of the methods I obtained from my research for keeping warm.

• ·      Blubber
• ·      Fur
• ·      Huddling together

Blubber is a thick layer of fats which insulating layer, keeping the animal warm. If this were how the organism would keep warm in winter, the skin would remain the same and this would make it 2 adaptations. Therefore, I moved on to the other mechanisms to see whether they would work better.

Fur is short, fine, soft hair which covers the body of the animal. Fur is usually white in colour and also traps a layer of air close to the animal’s body. As such, since air is a poor conductor of heat, the animal would lose heat to its surroundings at a slower rate and thus, be able to keep warm. This seemed like the perfect solution for me, as it would allow it to camouflage and keep warm. However, I did not wish to miss out on anything and hence decided to read up on the method of huddling together to keep warm before deciding anything.

Huddling together is where a group of the same species of animals either stands in a circle or in contact with each other. This way, the body heat of the penguins will circulate among them and not be lost to the surroundings. Unfortunately, this does not help the organisms to conceal themselves from the monsters hunting them down.

Therefore, having explored the different options in which the organism can possess one adaptation but receive more than one benefit from it, I have decided to use the fur to be the organism’s outer covering in the winter, which it would then shed in the summer.

Hiding from the predator alone would not protect the organism and it should have more defense mechanisms, which would help it in situations where it already knows that the predator is coming. Camouflage works any time, nevertheless of the predator’s presence. Apart from camouflage, which tricks the predator’s sense of sight, physical and chemical combat are the only other defense techniques, according to About.com.

Physical combat is usually fighting face-to-face, using violence. My group mates and I had decided that we would not research on our organisms all at once but move down the food chain. For example, I, as the one creating the primary consumer, would design the organism after the predators of my organism have been planned and designed so that I do not make my organism too strong or too weak, which would not maintain a healthy food web. One of my organism’s predators has two poisonous spikes on its face, which would kill with just one stab with its spikes. Hence, it would be impossible for the herbivore to defeat this predator since it uses toxic substances as its own defense mechanism. The other predator of my organism has spikes, which can be shot out, to attack its prey, extremely strong limbs and deadly sharp claws. Due to the fact that these predators are physically very capable, it is highly impossible for my organism to defeat them and thrive. Hence, I decided to learn more about chemical combat and aid my organism with this ability.

Chemical combat refers to releasing substances, which would either mislead the predator or kill it. Simply killing the predator would cause a great drop in the population of the predators of my organism and result in a unbalanced food web. Therefore, after much reasoning, I decided for my organism to use delusion and escape its predators. From my research, I learnt that there were extremely strong winds in the Alpine Tundra. In order for my organism to attack its predators from a distance, the chemical substance that my organism releases must somehow be transported to the predator.

In this case, the wind would the only means for the substance to reach the predators. Moreover, any liquid substances would not be able to be carried by the wind and scent can be the only mode to delude the predator. I researched on how one can release a smell that would be able to travel a reasonable distance away without losing its essence. While trying to find some useful information, I stumbled upon humans’ mechanism of flatulence. In any place, we can smell one’s flatulation even when we are a distance away. This is due to the fact that the gas is carried by the air and eventually, enters our nose. This sparked an idea in me that a similar mechanism could be used in my organism. To make the organism more unique, I will make it such that it would squirt out a powder, which gives out a strong, pleasant smell and this scent would be carried by the strong winds towards the predator.

Since my organism would know that the scent it travelling in the direction of the wind, and the predator would be following this scent, the organism would know that it has to run against the wind in order to run away from the predator. Even though the predator might have been completely deceived by this, it may still realize that it has been tricked and hence, continue to try to hunt down my organism. Therefore, after having squirted this powdery substance, my organism would need to run away as fast as possible and move the farthest distance possible away from the predator. One great disadvantage of this method is that the organism would have to run against the wind which makes it all the more slower due to air resistance. As a result, in order to ease this situation, I went to read up on ways to overcome air resistance.

Air resistance is similar to water resistance. It is about friction and how this force is restricting the movement of organisms. Water resistance would mean that almost every aquatic animal would have to be adapted to overcoming water resistance as the tide may change direction any time. When we say aquatic animals, the first thing that comes to my mind is fish. Fish have a special body shape, which helps them in swimming. I needed to get hold of more information about this body shape, which eased their movement and after some basic searches, I found it – THE STREAMLINED BODY SHAPE. The streamlined body shape basically meant that the animal’s body was narrow at the two ends and broad in the middle. After reading up about how millions and millions of fish possessed this body shape, and it successfully helped such a diverse range of creatures, I plan to give my organism a streamlined body shape which would likewise ease movement when it is running against the strong winds.

Last but not least, another physical feature of the organism, which would assist it in its escape. It would be of no use for the organism to be slow after all of these adaptations that it was going to be endowed with. Its body had already been defined. Its limbs!

To give the organism muscular legs for greater speed when running, I went to research on the anatomy of the human leg muscles and learnt much in greater detail about each muscle and how it does its part during the motion of running. The muscle that I thought would increase the speed of the organism of the best would be the calf muscle.

I read up that the calf muscle mainly helps to flex the ankle and straighten the foot to help the human to push off the ground. Hence, I thought that I would engineer the organism such that it has extraordinarily strong calf muscles, which would help it to push off the ground with maximum force and hence, propel itself further and faster.

All in all, my research tremendously helped me grasping many concepts pertaining to defense mechanisms and locomotion. As I researched and came across new and exciting bits of facts, I made improvements to my organism along the way as I have elaborated above, and ruled out certain features through reasoning. The information gathered allowed me to pick the best features, from the options available, and hence, make a well-adapted herbivore living in the Alpine Tundra.