Color, which plays an important role in the lives of some plants and animals, frequently tells an environmental story and offers us opportunities to ponder the ecology and behavior of wildlife.

Camouflage is common among animals whose lifestyle requires that they not be easily seen. Numerous examples exist of animals whose environment dictates their color pattern whether for protection (prey species) or for stealth (predators). The spotted coats of bobcats and baby deer, for example, help them hide from other animals. Although their reasons for having spots are different, both are clearly adapted for blending into their natural habitats: bobcats to avoid being seen by prey; fawns to avoid predators.

Among birds, body coloration is a common feature during the mating season. For instance, male goldfinches turn a vibrant yellow and male indigo buntings a bright blue in the spring. Male redwing blackbirds sport bright red and yellow epaulets on their wings. The females of the latter two species are an unimaginative brown, and female goldfinches are a much paler yellow than males. The body color of most mammals tends to be white, brown, gray or black, sometimes in combination. The brightly colored rump region of male baboons is the most obvious natural display of color among mammals, except for some hair colors emerging from beauty parlors. Fish display a wide range of colors. Brilliantly colored darters of southeastern streams are dramatic in their contrast between colorful males that run the color spectrum and much drabber females. A fish known as the Alabama darter includes orange, turquoise and blue in its courtship display.

Plants also use color to great advantage, the various forms of color advertising being highly visible. Brightly colored flowers attract insects, which are essential for pollination in some plants. And few plants can be accused of false advertising as the insect lured to a flower is usually treated to nectar. Bright red or yellow berries attract birds such as cedar waxwings. The meal offering ensures that the enclosed seed will later be deposited in another area.

The power of camouflage among our native wildlife is well known, readily observed in a gray treefrog sitting on an oak tree or other drab background. But a biological phenomenon known as flash coloration adds an intriguing defense feature. When a bird pursues a gray treefrog intending to make a meal of it, the frog jumps, displaying bright yellow underparts. Upon landing on a lichen-covered oak tree and tucking in its legs, the frog blends into the background. A bird expecting something yellow searches in vain.

One color phenomenon, albinism, is not a product of the natural environment of plants and animals. Albinism is the expression of an inherited genetic condition making the individual incapable of producing the pigments that normally give color to hair, skin, feathers and other surface tissues. Albinism makes survival in the wild difficult to impossible. An albino plant, a phenomenon documented in bamboo and buckeyes, has no chance of surviving for long after germination.

Despite the perils that confront most albino animals, I know of one situation in which albinism saved a snake’s life. A farmer in southern Georgia normally killed any canebrake rattlesnakes he found around his home. Usually they are well camouflaged, so when the farmer saw an albino rattlesnake in his yard, he was intrigued. Instead of killing the snake he contacted John Jensen of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. John removed the rattlesnake unharmed and gave it to the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory for educational purposes.

Endless examples exist of how plants and animals use color to their advantage and how natural selection could readily result in certain pigmentation being key to the survival and propagation of a species. Pay attention to coloration in the natural world and ask yourself why particular plants and animals, including insects, are one color instead of another.

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