Anolis carolinensis exhibits background-dependent, spectrally refined camouflage: chromatic shift dynamic principles and biomimetic potential

In this study, the green anole (Anolis carolinensis), which can rapidly change body color, was selected to explore how environmental color drives adaptive color change in different backgrounds. Individuals were exposed to four uniform chromatic substrates designed to span ecologically relevant and irrelevant background colors. The achromatic contrast, chromatic contrast, overlap, reflectance (360–760 nm), and temporal dynamics of color change were quantified. Image analysis revealed that against backgrounds resembling the species’ native habitats (i.e., green and black), lizards shifted their dorsal coloration toward the substrate, significantly decreasing both achromatic and chromatic contrasts while increasing overlap. Conversely, against the ecologically alien red background, no statistically significant chromatic adjustment occurred, and background‐matching indices remained unchanged. The time required for color change was likewise background-dependent, with the fastest shifts observed against dark-green and the slowest against black. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in colorimetric or temporal parameters between males and females. Moreover, reflectance analyses revealed that, within the 360–760 nm waveband, the stabilized dorsal reflectance decreased significantly by 12–28 % relative to baseline; nevertheless, stabilized reflectance values remained markedly higher against red and dark-green backgrounds than light-green and black ones, with males consistently exhibiting lower mean reflectance than females. These findings demonstrate that A. carolinensis employs a dynamic, spectrally fine-tuned background-contingent strategy for maximizing fitness through optimized concealment. The systematic investigation of how the body color of A. carolinensis responds to backgrounds not only paves the way for elucidating the underlying physiological control mechanisms, but also provides a biological prototype for the design and fabrication of actively color-changing biomimetic camouflage materials.