Camouflage: Crayfish, Minnows, Caddisflies and Red Efts!

Whew! We’re already four days into Session Four: Animal Superheroes! This session campers are learning about the adaptations of the animals that live here. Yesterday campers learned about different kinds of camouflage, a strategy that lots of animals use to survive. There are several kinds of camouflage, such as matching color, disruptive coloration, warning coloration, masking and countershading.

The Young Naturalists went to Amethyst Brook Conservation Area in Amherst yesterday to play camouflage games and discover camouflage creatures in the river.

Climbing and bouncing on a fallen hemlock tree was a huge hit.

We found some really cool mushrooms on our walk. They looked like tiny umbrellas!

We found Indian Pipe, a really cool parasitic plant that lacks chlorophyll. It seems more like a mushroom than a plant!

Some of us looked for minnows, crayfish and other creatures. I was looking for a caddisfly larva, the kings of river “masking” camouflage (when an animal covers itself with materials from its habitat to blend in). I found some but they weren't easy to photograph. Here's a link to their life cycle if you want to have a look. 

We found a mini “beach” with a rocky part and a sandy part. 

Tiny little crayfish! 

The afternoon campers created a little habitat in a basin so we could look at the creatures up close. We put some rocks and sand in to make it feel a little more like home. Then we put them back when it was time to go.

We have just a few photos here of the Explorers on their trip to Chapel Falls in Ashfield. They found a cool red-spotted salamander in its "red eft" terrestrial stage of life. Its bright coloring indicates warning coloration - a survival strategy that alerts predators not to eat it because it is poisonous.