{"id":3311,"date":"2013-11-19T11:19:15","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T16:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/?p=3311"},"modified":"2026-02-27T11:51:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T16:51:03","slug":"hiding-in-plain-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/2013\/hiding-in-plain-sight\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiding in Plain Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Hiding in Plain Sight\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<p>Richard Webster was a finalist in the 2013 3 Minute Thesis Competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more info about the 2014 3MT and Grad Research Forum, please visit our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IvQGYf8CZF8\">3MTGRF website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The following article about Richard Webster\u2019s PhD research was published in LiveScience.com&nbsp; on Oct. 23\/13.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Camouflage that matches an animal\u2019s \u201cedges\u201d with its surroundings makes it harder for a predator\u2019s eye to track the prey down, a new study reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"512\" height=\"443\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/2013\/11\/Emu-1-512x443.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/2013\/11\/Emu-1-512x443.jpg 512w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/2013\/11\/Emu-1-320x277.jpg 320w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/2013\/11\/Emu-1.jpg 576w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Using computer-generated moths as prey and humans as predators, scientists tracked the eye movements of 48 human subjects. On moths with disruptive or \u201cedge\u201d coloration, the predator\u2019s eyes lingered longer on the animal and passed over it more frequentlycompared to animals without these markings \u2014 even if the rest of the moth\u2019scamouflage did not match the background well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the survival of animals with disruptive coloration has been covered in other studies, this is the first time scientists tracked how the confusion occurs, co-author Christopher Hassall told LiveScience. The laser tracking system can distinguish between when a human eyemoves quickly \u2013 and doesn\u2019t see much \u2013 and when it lingers and fixates on a target. By looking at the times people lingered or passed over a target, it was possible to see how well the moth blended into its surroundings, he said. The study was only limited to human predators, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the full article:&nbsp; <a href=\"http:\/\/gradstudents.carleton.ca\/2013\/grad-student-research\/\">http:\/\/gradstudents.carleton.ca\/2013\/grad-student-research\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Webster was a finalist in the 2013 3 Minute Thesis Competition. For more info about the 2014 3MT and Grad Research Forum, please visit our 3MTGRF website. The following article about Richard Webster\u2019s PhD research was published in LiveScience.com&nbsp; on Oct. 23\/13. Camouflage that matches an animal\u2019s \u201cedges\u201d with its surroundings makes it harder [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3311"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18195,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311\/revisions\/18195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}