Hiding among colors: Background color diversity impedes detection time

Avoiding detection is vital for the survival of many animals. Factors extrinsic to animals, such as the visual complexity of the background, have been shown to impede the detection of animals. Studies using artificial and natural backgrounds have attributed background complexity to various visual features of the background. One feature that has received less attention is the diversity of color (hue) in the background. We used chickens and artificial backgrounds containing perceptually distinct elements in experiments to test whether color and luminance diversity affect detection time. We found that color diversity in the background impeded detection, while color diversity in prey and luminance diversity in the background did not impede detection. We also did not find an effect of luminance contrast on detection time. Our study suggests a prey animal can benefit in terms of increased detection times by predators when resting on backgrounds with enhanced color diversity., ,

规避被天敌发现对于诸多动物的生存而言至关重要。已有研究表明，动物所处环境的外在因素——比如背景的视觉复杂度——会阻碍天敌对动物的发现。过往采用人工与自然背景开展的研究，已将背景复杂度归因于背景的各类视觉特征。其中较少受到关注的一类特征，是背景的色彩（色调，hue）多样性。本研究以家鸡为实验对象，采用包含感知差异元素的人工背景开展实验，以检验色彩与亮度多样性是否会对发现时长产生影响。实验结果显示，背景的色彩多样性会阻碍天敌对猎物的发现，而猎物自身的色彩多样性以及背景的亮度多样性则无此阻碍效果。此外，本研究未发现亮度对比度对发现时长存在显著影响。本研究结果表明，当猎物栖息于色彩多样性更高的背景中时，可通过延长天敌的发现时长获得生存优势。