托福口语 Task 4

Today, we're going to talk about a fascinating concept in animal behavior called 'mimicry,' where one species evolves to resemble another for survival. But I want to focus on a specific type: 'Batesian mimicry,' where a harmless species imitates a dangerous or unpalatable one to avoid predators. The key point is that this mimicry is not perfect—it works because predators learn to avoid the harmful model, and the mimic benefits from that learned avoidance. Let me give you two examples. First, consider the scarlet king snake. It's harmless, but 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 the pattern, so they also avoid the king snake. Second, think about the hoverfly. It looks like a bee, with yellow and black stripes, but it has no stinger. Birds that have been stung by a bee associate the striped pattern with danger and steer clear of the hoverfly too. In both cases, the mimic's survival depends on the predator's previous bad experience with the model, not on the mimic being exactly identical—just similar enough to trigger that memory.