托福口语 Task 4

Today, we're going to talk about a fascinating concept in biology called 'mimicry'. Specifically, I want to focus on a type of mimicry where a harmless species imitates a dangerous one to avoid predators. This is known as Batesian mimicry. The key point is that the harmless species gains protection because predators learn to avoid the dangerous model. Let me give you two examples. First, consider the scarlet king snake. It has bright red, yellow, and black bands, very similar to the venomous coral snake. Predators that have encountered a coral snake learn to avoid those colors, so they also avoid the king snake. Second, there's the viceroy butterfly, which looks almost identical to the monarch butterfly. Monarchs are toxic to birds because they feed on milkweed. Birds that have eaten a monarch get sick and learn to avoid them. So they also avoid viceroys, even though viceroys are harmless. Both examples show how a harmless species can survive better by mimicking a dangerous one.