What is pfenning's experiment?

Answer 1

• A team of biologists designed a set of experiments to test a hypothesis that was suggested some time earlier
• The hypothesis was mimics (like the flower fly) benefit because predators confuse them with the actual harmful species.
• This group of researchers, David and Karin Pfennig, along with one of their college students, tested the hypothesis by studying mimicry in snakes that live in North and South Carolina.
• A poisonous snake, the eastern coral snake, is marked by rings of red, yellow, and black. Predators rarely attack these snakes (brightly colored with distinctive patterns).
• A nonpoisonous snake, the scarlet kingsnake, mimics the ringed coloration of the coral snake.
• The reason kingsnakes look like coral snakes is because they repel predators. The hypothesis predicted that predators would attack snakes with the bright rings of red, yellow, & black less frequently than they would attack snakes without the warning coloration.

To test the prediction, the researchers made hundreds of artificial snakes. The 2 types of artificial snakes were those with the red, yellow & black ring pattern of coral snakes and the snakes that were brown.

• The researchers places equal numbers of the 2 types of fake snakes in various sites throughtout North and South Carolina and after four weeks, they got the snaks and counted how many had been attacked.
• The experiment included snakes that were brown along with the ringed snakes because the contrast in coloration was necessary to see if predators attack snakes based on color.
• Of all the attacks on the snakes, 84% of them were on the brown snakes and 16% were on the snakes with colored rings. This experiment supported the hypothesis.