Kan Dail
Our Mother Nature has left her touches of art everywhere -whether it has been the anatomy of a snowflake or the accuracy of zebra stripes, the beauty of a peacock ‘s fan-tail or the charm of a butterfly’s wings. The animal kingdom has been blessed by a beautiful occurrence of vivid shapes and patterns. A myriad of designs and patterns exist in nature that proves that the best part is that by Mother Nature herself.
We can find an extensive collection of patterns in various animals all over the earth. The patterns or stripes are present on the body of animals to match with their surroundings like grass, plants, etc. These prevent animals from being spotted by predators. When a zebra hides behind the grass, these stripes confuse the predators in identifying it thereby provides protection. Aside from camouflage from predators, the patterns keep them cool, and comfortable. Recent studies have even suggested that the more flies in the area, the more stripes are present on the animal! Below we examine the best animal patterns that occur in nature. These patterns not only protect the animals but are also beautiful and appealing to look at.
Best Animal Patterns
1. Zebra’s Stripes
The zebra is known for its mystic stripe pattern. The sleek and glossy skin of the zebra has distinct stripes that are black and white in colour. But these stripes are not just for appeal. The stripes help the zebras to escape from lions and other predators by providing camouflage. They also help them to keep away disease-carrying flies. Another important feature of this alternate black and white stripes’ pattern is to control body heat. The light and dark stripes heat up at different rates and generate small-scale breezes over the zebra’s body when he spends most of his life outdoors.
Also Read: Top 10 Craziest Animals In The World
Image Source: Wikimedia
2. Giraffe’s Spots
The Giraffe’s golden or beige spots on its dark brown coat provide camouflage in their grassy forest surroundings. These fields, full of tall grasses and trees provide dappled shade. The random spots help them blend in with their surroundings. These shade patterns, making them more difficult for predators to identify. These dark patches help in the circulation of heat in the giraffe’s body as the blood runs closest to the surface of the skin here. A giraffe’s spots are like human fingerprints. Each individual giraffe has a unique spot pattern.
Also Read: Top 10 Most Graceful Animals
Image Source: Wikimedia
3. Jaguar’s Rosettes
Another animal with a beautiful skin pattern is the jaguar. These animals have beautiful tawny coats with dark spots with a distinct structure. These spots on their coats have a beautiful and unique pattern. The jaguar’s spots are like jagged black circles with jagged edges that resemble roses, with tawny centres on their golden coat. They provide good camouflage for the predators as they move through trees. Each spot looks like a rose and is called a rosette. A jaguar’s rosettes have spots inside them.
Also Read: Top 10 Species of the Eocene Period
Image Source: Wikimedia
4. Cheetah’s Spots
One of the fiercest animals, the cheetah is known for its beautiful and shiny fur with dark black spots. The spot of a cheetah is a single, black spot. Cheetahs have more than 2000 spots on their body. A cheetah’s spots and the ring pattern of its tail are unique, just like a human fingerprint. This fur helps to shield them from bad weather. It also camouflages them in the grass as they go in search of prey and hunt animals. It is also listed as one of the best land animals in the world.
Image Source: Wikimedia
Image Source: Wikimedia
5. Boa’s Skin
One of the best animal patterns, Boa constrictors are large and heavy snakes that inhabit the tropical regions of South Central America. The boa skin depicts an elaborate colour pattern. They have a distinct skin pattern that depends upon their surroundings to camouflage them. They have a pale grey or brown coloured skin. It is adorned with shapes in a pattern that runs the length of his body. These shapes can be ovals, circles or even diamonds that can be coloured red, green or yellow and outlined in black.
Also Read: 10 Most Famous Cartoon Animals
Image Source: Wikimedia
6. Turtle’s Shell Pattern
A turtle’s shell pattern is one of the most designs created by nature. It consists of separate square regions on a turtle’s shell known as scutes. The scutes can be brightly coloured in some turtle species, but the basal colour is a grey to dark brown colour dorsally. As the turtle and its shell grow, the scutes on the shell shed to make way for new scutes. The turtles can be easily identified by the patterns on the shell of the turtle. For example, a leatherback sea turtle has ridges along the carapace instead of scutes.
Also Read: Top 10 Animal Fights On Planet Earth
7. Butterfly’s Wings
If you want to find beauty at its best, look for the butterfly’s wings. Butterflies are the most beautiful insects found on the earth. They have the most colourful wing patterns in nature. A butterfly’s rich colour wing patterns can act as camouflage, mate attraction, and warning signal. Butterflies have very different patterns on the upper (dorsal) and undersides (ventral) of their wings. The elements of butterfly wing patterns differ from species to species. Scientists have discovered that butterfly wing patterns are due to a single gene, t.WntA, which is responsible for a dazzling array of pattern elements: size, shape, colour, and its intensity. It has one of the best animal patterns.
Also Read: Top 10 Bugs and Insects
8. Peacock Tail
The peacock’s fantail is a panorama of spectacular beauty because of the large feathers, bright, iridescent colors and beautiful patterns. Its tail feathers are capable of producing a splendid optical effect due to thin-film interference. The patterns of the peacock’s tail feathers have a high degree of brightness and precision because of the colour-producing pigments. The peacock displays a magnificent ‘fan formation’ of about 200 feathers. Of which 170 are ‘eye’-shaped feathers and 30 are ‘T’ feathers. The ‘eyes’ are sometimes referred to as oscillations.
Image Source: Wikimedia
9. Tiger Stripes
Another beautiful pattern in animals is the existence of stripes on a tiger’s body. Tigers have parallel stripes that are evenly spaced and are placed perpendicular to their spine. A tiger’s stripes provide camouflage to catch their prey easily. They make it easier for the tiger to stalk as through long grass in the night. These black stripes on its tawny brown or orange fur are like fingerprints and no two tigers have the same pattern.
Image Source: Wikimedia
10. Gecko Skin Texture
Geckos are small lizards found in warm climates throughout the world. The Gecko Skin has varied natural textures, tonal colors and surface patterns depending upon their species. Leopard geckos have yellow or white skin and spotted with black dots. They have several colour and pattern variations called morphs, which include almost every colour of the rainbow. Tokay geckos are known for their vibrant colors and spots. They are usually of a blue or grey colour with bright blue and orange spots.
11. Ladybug
Ladybug is a beetle that belongs to the family Coleoptera. Currently, there are around 5000 species of ladybugs on planet Earth that differ in size, colour and type of habitat. The beetles can be seen throughout the world mostly in forests, meadows, fields and rocky areas. These beetles are considered as a factor of good luck in few countries, however, the population has been dropped because of habitat destruction and chemical pollution. The best-known species of beetle is covered with black dots on the red body.
The other beetles come in yellow, orange or scarlet. Ladybugs come in a rounded body with a pair of antennas on the head. They also have 2 pairs of wings and 6 legs. Ladybug releases a sticky substance from the feet to make hard contact with the ground. The species love to eat aphids, mites and flies and they can eat members of the same family during the scarcity of foods. The main predators of ladybugs are aphids, mites and flies.
12. Parrot
Parrots are one of the most colorful birds in the world with over 372 species of parrots mostly seen in the tropical and subtropical areas of South and Central America, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. There are many species of parrots that prefer cold climates such as Macaws, Amazons, kea, kaka, lorikeets, parakeets, lovebirds and cockatoos.
The species considered as one of the most popular bird pets in the world because of their intelligence and beauty, howvever, approximately 100 species of parrot are critically endangered because of the illegal pet trade and habitat loss. The lifespan of smaller parrots are up to 10 years in the captivity, howvever, larger species have a lifespan of nearly 80 years.
13. Zorse
A zorse is a hybrid animal created by the cross-breeding of zebra and horse. It is also known as zebrule that inherited the best of both parents. Since, 19th century, it is used as a working animal mostly for transportation of goods and people. The species with one of the best animal patterns reach 51 to 64 inches in height and 500 to 992 pounds of weight.
Talking about the appearance, Zorse come with large head and eyes along with pricked ears and short mane on the back with thin legs. The lifespan of Zorse is more than 30 years with proper care. The species is a social animal that loves to spend time with other equines. Zorse unique animal pattern can be used for fast identification.
Image Source: Wikimedia
14. Okapi
Okapi is the relative of the giraffe and mostly seen in the northern, central and eastern parts of the Congo (Africa). The species was discovered in 1900 with around a population of 45000 animals that used to live in the wildlife, howvever, because of intensive deforestation during the 20th century and exposed to high susceptibility toward fungal, bacterial and viral infections, the population of the animal species reduced to around 10 000. Talking about the appearance, Okapis are dark purple or reddish-brown velvety fur with only white horizontal stripes and hind legs. The average lifespan of the species is around 20 to 30 years. It has one of the best animal patterns on the skin.
15. Clownfish
Clownfish is a small marine fish known for its beautiful animal patterns on the skin and gained popularity after it appeared in the animated movie “Finding Nemo”. As of now, a total of 28 species of clownfish is known mostly seen in the Indian and Pacific Ocean along with Red sea and Australian Great Barrier Reef. It prefers warm water near the coral reefs, however, the biggest threat to the survival of clownfish is the pollution of the ocean, overfishing and destruction of their habitat. The species can reach upto 2 to 5 inches in length and can be easily identified because of beautiful colour strips on the body making it one of the unique animal patterns in the world. They are often kept as pets and can survive only 3 to 5 years in the aquariums.
Image Source: Wikimedia
16. Common Loon
Common Loon is an aquatic bird species mostly seen in the coasts of Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, lakes, ponds and various waterways. The bird species belong to the family Gaviidae and listed as one of the oldest and primitive birds across the world. Talking about the appearance, the loon has a black head and neck along with black and white plumage. Loons love to spend most of the time in water and unlike other birds, they have solid bones which reduce buoyancy and facilitate diving. Loons are solitary birds and rarely seen in groups. It can survive for around 30 years in the wild.
These are some of the most beautiful and appealing animal patterns existing in nature. Whether it is to provide camouflage or provide a cooling effect or just plain appeal, these patterns are an integral feature of animals’ bodies and serve an important purpose in nature. These are the animal species with the best animal patterns. Kindly share and do post your comments.