Hernandesi Habitat Lab Report

Introduction
Camouflage, in other words the ability to blend in with the surroundings is a profoundly studied feature in many animals. From empirical evidence, animals like Chameleon and the Leaf-Tailed Gecko which have pigments that match their surroundings are much harder to spot than animals whose pigments don’t. Recent studies have shown that the bark-resting moth has a tendency to live within a habitat that has a hue similar to itself. It can alter its position on the background for a better camouflage to avoid predation (Marshall 2016). My test species the Phrynosoma Hernandesi, is an animal that is relatively a small and slow, making it an easy target for predation. Due their physical nature, P. Hernandesi relies heavily on camouflage to survive (James 2007). Thus hue similarity between the P. Hernandesi and its habitat will increase its chances of survival as predators can’t easily distinguish background and its prey.
Studies have also shown that natural selection of animals within a
Hernandesi’s pigment similarity with its habitat will increase its chances of survival. The null hypotheses is the similar coloration between P. Hernandesi and its habitat have no effect on their chance of survival. In order for the null hypothesis to be accepted my experimental data must not show any relation between the time of predation for the different pigmented lizards. An example would be that the predation time for the controlled lizard is the same as the lizards with altered pigments or if the predation time for the controlled lizard is higher than any other time of the pigmented lizards. For the null hypothesis to be rejected, there must be a correlation between the pigmentation of lizards and the predation time. The controlled group of lizards must take the longest time to be attacked due to their camouflage with the environment around while the pigmented lizards takes less time(Kjernsmo and Merilaita