List of animals that can change color

A Carolina anole changing from green to brown over a few minutes

Some animals are capable of changing their colors with varying degrees of transformation. This may be a very gradual (shedding of fur or feathers) seasonal camouflage, occurring only twice a year. In other animals more rapid changes may be a form of active camouflage, or of signalling.

Examples

Examples of animals that change color include:

Mammals and birds

Reptiles and amphibians

  • Chameleons - Colour change signals a chameleon's physiological condition and intentions to other chameleons. Because chameleons are ectothermic, they change color also to regulate their body temperatures, either to a darker color to absorb light and heat to raise their temperature, or to a lighter color to reflect light and heat, thereby either stabilizing or lowering their body temperature.
  • Anoles - The majority of anoles (Dactyloidae) can change their color depending on things like emotions (for example, aggression or stress), activity level, levels of light and as a social signal (for example, displaying dominance).
  • Frogs, e.g. gray treefrog and Peron's tree frog (which can change colour in less than one hour).

Molluscs

Fish

Insects and spiders

  • Charidotella sexpunctata - Adults can turn from shiny gold through reddish-brown when disturbed.
  • Misumena vatia - The color change from white to yellow (depending on the color of the flowers on which the spider is hunting) takes between 10 and 25 days; the reverse about six days. 
  • Chrysso venusta has been observed to rapidly change its color when disturbed.
  • Some spiders, including Cyrtophora cicatrosa, can change colour rapidly.
  • Thomisus spectabilis

See also

References

Uses material from the Wikipedia article List of animals that can change color, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.