TOEFL Speaking Task 3

In biology, the concept of 'mimicry' refers to the evolutionary adaptation where one species (the mimic) evolves to resemble another species (the model) to gain a survival advantage. This resemblance can be in appearance, behavior, or sound. Mimicry often serves to deceive predators or prey, thereby increasing the mimic's chances of survival and reproduction. There are different forms, such as Batesian mimicry, where a harmless species imitates a harmful one to avoid predation, and Müllerian mimicry, where two harmful species evolve to look alike, reinforcing learned avoidance by predators.

Professor: Let me give you a clear example from a rainforest in South America. There is a harmless butterfly species called the 'viceroy' that closely resembles a toxic butterfly, the 'monarch'. Birds have learned to avoid monarchs because eating them causes sickness. Since viceroys look almost identical to monarchs, birds also avoid viceroys, even though viceroys are perfectly safe to eat. This is Batesian mimicry—the harmless viceroy mimics the toxic monarch. The key point is that the resemblance must be close enough to fool predators. Over generations, viceroys that looked more like monarchs survived better and reproduced, so the mimicry became more precise. This example shows how mimicry directly enhances survival by reducing the risk of being eaten.