Animals need ways to protect themselves.

Some are poisonous, some are very fast and there are some that you can’t spot.

That is called camouflage, they bend with their environment and become nearly invisible.

Counter shaded Ibex.

These goat-like things aren’t easy to spot, are they?

There are 3 Ibexes in this picture can you spot them both?

This might be a little easy for us humans but animal predators haven’t gotten such good eyes.
They are around 69cm – 119 cm big and they weigh about 90 – 120 kilograms.

With those measurements it would be really hard to hide but they did a good job with this, didn’t they?

It’s impressive how they manage to hide this well but why?

It was to defend themselves from their predators but these days most of them have vanished from the slopes they used to live.

Those predators included bears, wolves, lynxes and golden eagles.

Although they don’t really need it that much anymore they still have it and will probably have it for a long time.

Flounder.

This fish, the flounder, is a very well hid fish.

It has the same sparkles as the floor has and looks just like the floor.

Nothern Atlantic ocean and waters along the East coast of the United States and Canada and the Pacific Ocean.

Their camouflage has an other purpose then the Ibexes camouflage.

The Flounders use it to hide from their prey.

When the prey comes swimming in he won’t notice the Flounders that are waiting for him to come.

And when he notices it is too late and he will be attacked by the Flounders.

Hoplophrys oatesii crab.

I don’t think you can spot the crab can you?

Well don’t worry there is no problem with your eyes it’s just that it is harder then saying it’s name.

We are lucky that there is an easier name for it, the soft coral crab.

They are very small but that’s normal for a crab.

It lives in deep reefs and the external slopes in the West Pacific ocean.

Camo Moth.

The camo moth is an insect with a very impressive camouflage.

You can notice him in the top left of the picture.

There isn’t much to say about this moth because it is just like any other moth but this one is harder to spot.

Like any moth it is closely related to the butterfly which also has an impressive camouflage, the brimstone butterfly at least.

This one is a little easier too spot for us.

But for other animals he is invisible which makes it hard to catch, I mean you can’t catch something you can’t see.

That is the use of it’s camouflage, it hides from predators, however it sometimes is found on flowers where it is easy to spot the brimstone butterfly.

Walking leaf.

This one is easy to spot because it seems out of place but animals can’t think like that, they think that the walking leaf is just a leaf.

But if a predator saw that walking leaf in a rotting tree they would spot it.

That is why there are different kinds of walking leaves.

For rotten trees there are rotten walking leaves, for trees with special leaves there are special walking leaves.

That is “survival of the fittest” in a rotting tree that walking leaf will not survive but on a other tree he will.

So only the one who isn’t seen will be able to reproduce itself and exist.

There are more animals then insects who mimic leaves these include:

A leaf frog,

a leaf fish

and a leaf tailed gecko.

Chameleon.

This is a chameleon, an animal with unique camouflage.

What’s so unique about it?

The chameleon can change its color when in a different background!

But there are a few misunderstandings about these animals.

Most people think that the chameleon can change to any color but that is not true.

There are many different species of chameleons, and all of them can change in a few colors.

So if you count all of the colors it might be able to change its color in any color but a single chameleon can’t.

Another misunderstanding is that they change colors for the purpose of camouflage but that isn’t true either, however it is able to.

It is a way to communicate with other chameleons and to attract chameleons from the opposite gender.

I hope you enjoyed the list and learnt something from it.