Question

Animals have the innate ability to escape from predation. Examples for the same are given below. Select the incorrect example.
A) Enlargement of body size by swallowing air in puffer fish
B) Melanism in moths
C) Poison fangs in snakes
D) Colour changes in chameleon

Answer 1

Hint: Tools to escape predation are defensive, not offensive generally. They include camouflage, giving a nasty taste, mimicry, and so on. These are mechanisms that the animals control when faced with danger.

Complete Answer:
- The puffer fish has a lot of natural predators in the ocean, despite the fact that it can be quite toxic, and eating the puffer fish can kill us. These predators include tiger sharks. By blowing themselves up and getting several times their normal size, as well as the presence of spines, puffer fish can evade being eaten. Option A is incorrect.
- Melanism in moths allows them to camouflage against the background. For instance, when the tree trunks are dark, the number of moths with dark bodies and wings naturally increases as they are protected from being eaten by birds. However this is not an adaptation mechanism, but passive selection. The moths can’t change their physical characteristics; it is simply the background that affects survival. Option B is the correct answer.
- Poison fangs are like hypodermic syringes. They are specialised hollow teeth that connect to the venom gland in the snake. When the snake attacks its prey, it injects poison into it to kill or immobilise the prey. However, the snake also bites any animal that attacks him to escape being eaten. Option C is not the correct answer.
- A chameleon has the ability to alter its pigmentation pattern and thereby blend into the background. This also allows it to camouflage itself whenever it feels threatened, and thereby avoid detection. Option D is not correct.

Hence the correct answer is option B.

Note: An innate ability is something that the animal is born with, and is also under its control. Colouring that doesn’t change is not an ability, but a feature of the animal. Many animals would use similar tools to prey and escape predation.