Predation Defense
Plants ? spines (cactus); gland hairs; grass /w silicate ? secondary chemical compounds (e.g. mustard oils) make plants unpalatable or toxic to potential grazers
Animals ? chemicals in skin (e.g. poison-dart frogs, lizards) ? chemical weapons (venomous snakes, bees & wasps) ? defensive coloration: poisonous animals often in bright “warning color” (helps operant conditioning of predator) ? camouflage coloration in non-poisonous animals
Mimicry: similar shape, coloration and behavior of non-poisonous and poisonous species or among different poisonous species ? utilize operant conditioning in predators to avoid predation
Prey-predator co-evolution: the “arms race” between new defenses and the predators adaptation to overcome defenses; sometimes predators can not only tolerate chemical defenses but even keep the chemicals to become unpalatable themselves to their predators