Don't eat me! Tracking warning signals across a variable predator landscape

Warning colours protect toxic prey from predators who learn to associate the colours with an unpleasant taste. Theoretically, warning colours should not vary, but in nature we find appreciable and unexplained variation. This presents a fundamental and unresolved biological problem - why do warning colours vary? Our project addresses this question by investigating how local environmental factors and predator communities affect warning colour expression across the Australian landscape. We utilise Australia's excellent environmental and biodiversity informatics infrastructure to inform the public and decision makers about the adaptability of animals to environmental change such as predator loss.