托福口语 Task 4

Today, we're going to talk about a fascinating concept in biology called 'mimicry.' Mimicry is when one species evolves to look or behave like another species, often to gain a survival advantage. There are different types of mimicry, but I want to focus on two: Batesian mimicry and Müllerian mimicry. In Batesian mimicry, a harmless species imitates a dangerous or poisonous one to fool predators. For example, the scarlet king snake is non-venomous, but it has the same red, yellow, and black bands as the deadly coral snake. Predators avoid the king snake because they mistake it for the coral snake. In contrast, Müllerian mimicry involves two or more dangerous species evolving to look alike. For instance, several species of stinging wasps and bees share similar black-and-yellow stripes. Since predators learn to avoid these colors after one bad experience, all the species benefit from the shared warning signal. So, mimicry is a powerful evolutionary strategy that can protect species from predators.