Finding a signal hidden among noise: how can predators overcome camouflage strategies?

This is the final version. Available on open access from the Royal Society via the DOI in this recordSubstantial progress has been made in the last 15 years regarding how prey use a variety of visual camouflage types to exploit both predator visual processing and cognition, including background matching, disruptive coloration, countershading, and masquerade. In contrast, much less attention has been paid to how predators might overcome these defences. Such strategies might include the evolution of more acute senses, the co-opting of other senses not targeted by camouflage, changes in cognition such as forming search images, and using behaviours that change the relationship between the cryptic individual and the environment or disturb prey and cause movement. Here we evaluate the methods through which visual camouflage prevents detection and recognition, and discuss if and how predators might evolve, develop, or learn counter-adaptations to overcome these.Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowshi