You are doing field work on a small,uninhabited island.You are supplementing your food supply with fish that live in some of the ponds on the island.You catch a brightly colored fish with red and black stripes,filet it,pan fry it,and spit out your first bite because it tastes like it had been soaked in urine.Back at camp,your guide from a nearby island is pan frying fish with red and black stripes he caught in an adjacent pond.When you tell him not to eat those,he smiles and says these are the best-tasting fish in the whole island chain! You look closer and see the pattern of the red and black stripes is just a little different from the fish you caught.What principle of ecology have you just experienced firsthand?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This scenario represents Batesian mimicry, where a harmless species (the fish caught by the researcher) mimics the warning signal of a harmful species (the fish caught by the guide) to avoid predation. The harmful species in this case is likely to be avoided by predators since it tastes bad or is toxic. The harmless species benefits from this mimicry by being left alone by predators who mistake it for the harmful species.

You Are Doing Field Work on a Small,uninhabited Island