patterning of the regions ...

an exact match with the environment's colors is less crucial than the patterning of the regions of color themselves. - theory of camouflage.

camouflage is the method which allows an otherwise visible organism or object to remain indiscernible from the surrounding environment. in nature, there is a strong evolutionary pressure for animals to blend into their environment or conceal their shape, for prey animals to avoid predators and for predators to be able to sneak up on prey.

for these strategies to work, the animal must stay in a particular position for hours at a time, like snakes that are active at night and rest by day, sitting motionless on the tree trunks into which they blend.

it appears that the snakes underwent a rapid radiation in their initial burst of evolution, with a number of different lifestyles appearing at once and then developing independently and in parallel afterwards. snakes, like all living things, are the product of the process of evolution, which allows species to change over time in response to environmental factors and colours to produce entirely new species.

malabar pit viper (trimeresurus malabaricus) is a species of snake found only in the western ghats of india and they are found in varied colouration, may be capitalising specfic niche's in the forest. will write more about this species in another post, because i have a better picture for that !