(Ottawa) –
Carleton grad student Richard Webster spends a lot of time trudging through forests looking for moths. It’s not an easy task as the moths are experts at camouflage.
“It’s not just about coloration,” says Webster. “In order to avoid detection, some species of moths even choose the direction in which they lie to align their striped markings to the furrows on a tree’s bark.”
As part of this research, Webster designed a game that asked people to find moths hidden in a forest.
“Through understanding camouflage, you can also understand why animals are coloured the way they are,” says Webster.
Under the direction of biology professors Tom Sherratt and Jean-Guy Godin, Webster is also exploring a novel type of camouflage called “disruptive coloration” which confuses predators by masking the outline of the animal.
His research has real-world applications ranging from military camouflaged uniforms to building designs in natural settings.
Webster’s latest research has just been published in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society which published a special themed issue on what is camouflage and how can we better understand it. “This prestigious journal has been published by the UK Royal Society since the time of Isaac Newton so it is quite an achievement to be published in it,” says Dr. Sherratt.
As well as his research, Webster recently placed in the top 20 out of 12,000 other candidates for a UK TV show To the Ends of the Earth, produced by the BBC Natural History Unit ─ the same people that brought us Blue Planet and Planet Earth. He competed for a spot to become a wildlife filmmaker.
Webster is one of many leading edge researchers in the biology department at Carleton University who are looking at real-world topics such as human disease, sustainable energy and conservation of the environment.
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For more information:
Richard Webster
richard.j.webster@googlemail.com
613-520-2600, ext. 3866
Lin Moody
Media Relations
Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 8705