Why These Beautiful Animals Have Spots

Beauty comes in all forms, shapes, sizes, and patterns in the animal kingdom. You can see every color of the rainbow in the animal world. Mother Nature has bestowed certain animals with different marks in bold and beautiful patterns. Spots, bands, stripes, dots; you will see it all.

Why Do Animals Have Spots?

Many different hypotheses suggest why some animals have spots. Some of these hypotheses include repelling insects, providing camouflage or an optical illusion, confusing predators, reducing body temperature, or helping animals recognize each other. In addition, animals have evolved spots as camouflage. Different patterns, such as stripes and dots, allow animals to camouflage or blend into their surroundings, which helps them avoid detection by hunters or prey.

Whether an animal has stripes or spots depends on the size of the embryo when two types of melanin form under the animal’s skin. The chemicals are eumelanin (which gives darker hair when abundant and lighter when rare) and pheomelanin (which gives red hair).

Let’s Take A Look At These 12 Beautiful Spotted Animals

Alan Turing discovered this chemical process of how animals have different patterns in the 1950s. The chemical process is called a reaction-diffusion model. He hypothesized that no design would form if an embryo were tiny. If the embryo is slightly bigger, the pattern is striped; if the embryo is bigger than that, it has spots, and even bigger still, there is again no pattern. The shape of the embryo also plays a role because if an embryo of a potentially spotted animal is elongated, that part develops stripes. An example of this phenomenon is spotted cheetahs have striped tails, but no striped animal has a spotted tail.

1. Leopard

You might have heard the saying, “A leopard never changes its spots,” which means a person can’t change their behavior even if they try. The leopard is a beautiful spotted cat, and the spots on leopards are called rosettes. These mammals are carnivores, usually 4.25 to 6.25 feet long from head to tail, stand 1.5 to 2.5 feet tall at the shoulder, and weigh between 66 and 176 pounds.

Leopards are graceful and powerful big cats with close relations to jaguars, lions, and tigers. These cats live in sub-Saharan Africa, northwest Africa, Central Asia, India, and China. In addition, these graceful, endangered beings live in places outside of Africa. The leopard is comfortable in the trees and will hunt by dragging the bodies of large animals it has killed into the branches. By dragging the bodies of large animals it has killed into the tree branches, the leopard hopes to keep its kill safe from scavengers such as hyenas. Leopards also do a lot of their hunting from trees; their spotted coats come in handy by camouflaging them to blend in with the leaves until they pounce on their prey.

Most leopards are light-colored with distinctive dark spots called rosettes because they look like the shape of a rose. On the other hand, black leopards appear entirely black but also have spots. As a result, they are harder to see.

2. Giraffe

These spotted mammals are the tallest animals on land. Giraffes stretch from 14 to 19 feet tall and live about 25 years. A giraffe’s legs alone are taller than most humans—about 6 feet tall. Their long legs help them run up to speeds of over 35 miles an hour and cruise over short distances of 10 miles an hour. A giraffe’s spots are like human fingerprints because no two giraffes have the same pattern. The spots help giraffes camouflage, regulate body temperature, and recognize each other. Under each patch or spot is a complex system of blood vessels, and research has even been conducted to show that the color of a male giraffe’s spot can determine his behavior.

3. Dalmatians

Dalmatians are a dog breed with a white coat marked with black or brown spots. Dalmatians originated as hunting dogs, and the breed’s origins can be traced back to present-day Croatia, in the historical region of Dalmatia. These dogs live for 12-14 years. Dalmatian spots occur from the interaction of genes at several locations called loci. A locus is the fixed spot on a chromosome where a genetic marker is located. As a result, you will not find the Dalmatian coat pattern in any other dog breed. The spots vary in size from a dime to the extent of a half-dollar and are usually smaller on the head, legs, and tail than on the body. Ideally, the spots never intermingle. Fun fact: Dalmatians are born solid white and don’t get their spots until they are about two weeks old.

4. Cheetah

These spotted mammals are the fastest animals on land and reach speeds of 60 miles an hour and sometimes 70. However, when cheetah chases their prey, they only chase them at half speed. Cheetahs are carnivores and live up to 14 years in the wild and 20 years in captivity. They weigh 77 to 143 pounds.
These cats’ bodies are uniquely adapted to run at top speeds. Their long, slender limbs, hard foot pads, and flexible spine give them long strides. This allows the cats to be agile at high speeds and to hunt their prey quickly and suddenly. In addition, the cheetah’s coat, covered in their famous dark spots, has a unique pattern to help animals identify one another. These cats can have up to 2000 spots on their body. Cheetahs usually live in open grasslands across eastern and southern Africa. However, cheetahs today are classified as “vulnerable,” with their populations declining due to habitat loss and reduced prey availability, threatening their future.

5. Jaguars

Jaguars are carnivorous animals that weigh 100 to 250 pounds. You will find these large cats in North, Central, and South America. Because they look so similar, jaguars and leopards get mistaken for each other. Their orange coats and black spots identify both of these cats. Jaguar spots are also called rosettes, but unlike leopards, jaguar rosettes have a spot in the center. Jaguar spots are more complex and often have a dot in the center. These cats have a rich history and were worshiped as gods in many South American cultures. In addition, representations of jaguars appear in the art and archaeology of pre-Columbian cultures throughout the jaguar’s range.

Jaguars are solitary animals, spend most of their time alone, and are territorial. They define their territory as their own by their waste or clawing on trees. Female jaguars produce litters of one to four cubs. Jaguar cubs are blind and helpless at birth and need their mother to protect them for two years. After that, the mother will stay with the cubs and defend them fiercely from any animal that comes near them, even their father.

Jaguars once roamed freely from central Argentina all the way up to the southwestern United States. However, more than half of the jaguars’ territory has been lost due to habitat fragmentation. High rates of deforestation in South and Central America, particularly for agriculture and illegal ranching, have significantly reduced jaguar habitat

6. Chital or Spotted Deer

The spotted deer or chital is the most common deer species in Indian forests. They live between 20 and 30 years, and this deer is 35 inches tall and weighs 187 pounds. The chital, the Axis deer, is native to the Indian subcontinent. The upper golden-brown body of these beautiful deer is completely covered in white spots. The chital’s mating season is prolonged because the perpetually warm climate allows females to remain fertile and give birth to fawns at any time. Because these deer live in tropical conditions, males don’t have synchronized antler cycles. The size and hardness of a male’s antlers demonstrate their dominance. These deer live and travel together in groups consisting of 10 to 50 individuals. The herds consist of one or two males, with the rest being females and young.

7. The Spotted House Snake

There are several spotted varieties of snakes all over the world. For example, the Spotted House Snake or the Spotted Rock Snake lives in the rocky terrain of South Africa. This snake is nocturnal and secretive as it hides between rocks to hunt its prey, consisting of geckos, lizards, and occasionally small rodents. These snakes have brownish, tan, cream, or pink bodies with dark or red spots all over their bodies. These snakes grow between 16 and 24 inches and feature wide and flat heads to easily navigate through narrow rock crevices.

8. Holstein Friesian Cow

These cows are the well-known black-and-white dairy cows. These cows originate from North Holland and Friesland. These cows are known for their beautiful and famous black spots and are the world’s highest dairy producers. No two cows have the same pattern, much like human fingerprints. Instead, these cows get their spots as a result of recessive genetics. This cow’s chief characteristic is its large size. These cows are valued highly for their milk-producing ability. The Holstein Friesians outnumber all other dairy breeds, producing nine-tenths of the milk supply.

9. Appaloosa-Spotted Horse

This spotted horse is native to America and is widely known for its distinctive spots. This horse breed is a hybrid developed from multiple horse breeds. These horses have distinctive spots like leopards, and spotting occurs in several overlay patterns and coat colors. These horses are used in riding disciplines like show jumping, fox hunting, and horse racing. Each horse’s color pattern is genetically the result of various spotting patterns overlaid on top of one of several base coat colors. The Appaloosa is one of the most famous horse breeds in the modern world. These horses participate in horse shows around the globe.

10. Spotted Turtle

The spotted turtle is a small semi-aquatic turtle that reaches a carapace length of 8–12 cm as an adult. The spotted turtle only possesses one spot at birth, but grows over 100 more as they become an adult. The spots cover the turtle’s shell and range in color from yellow to orange. These polka-dotted creatures live along the East Coast but have declined in population.

11. Ocelot

This medium-sized cat reaches 40–50 cm at the shoulders and weighs, on average, between 7 and 15.5 kg. They weigh 18–34 pounds and prefer to live near water sources with dense vegetation cover and abundant prey. This cat preys on small land mammals like armadillos, opossums, and lagomorphs. The ocelot, a solitary cat, hunts at twilight and during the night. The ocelot spots are also called rosettes, like the leopard and the cheetah.