<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > imagine if you could seamlessly blend into the background when trying to avoid enemies — or change the texture of your skin to mimic the ground beneath your feet, a feature that probably many people fantasized about as children. </h1>
1. Giant leaf-tailed gecko
For giant leaf-tailed geckos, they are not only masters of disguise, but also able to mimic the screams of humans. When they rest on the forest floor of Madagascar during the day, their jaws and flanks of gray-green fringes flatten the surface of logs, trunks and fallen leaves. This strategy then hides their outlines, increases their own surface area and refracts light rays so that they can barely see the predator's eyes. Their skin is mottled and the appearance of the species varies: colors include tan, green, gray and brown. The giant leaf-tailed gecko rests head down to increase camouflage. If you stumble upon an electric shock, be prepared – they open their big crimson mouths and sound alarms that sound like a child's scream!
Giant leaf-tailed gecko
2. Deciduous toad
The deciduous toad is found in South America, although it can be difficult to spot because it is perfectly disguised as a dead leaf. Found along rivers and streams in wet forests, its skin pattern allows it to blend in with falling dead leaves. This visual ruse provides it with vital protection from imminent predators. Its camouflage strategy allows it to feed on insects found in nutrient-rich dead leaf piles that cover the forest floor. Since it is only found in forests, its habitat is threatened by cattle ranches and industrial agriculture.
Found along rivers and streams in wet forests, its skin pattern allows it to blend in with falling dead leaves
3. Surround the spider
Endemic to parts of Australia and Oceania, this wrap-around spider has a concave abdomen that can squash itself around the curves of trees to avoid being spotted by hungry birds. The oval disc runs through its belly, making it the perfect camouflage against branches. These oval discs give the spider a leopard-skin-like appearance, hence the name "leopard spider". During the day, the surrounding spider happily embraces its tree, undisturbed, but as soon as the sun sets, it quickly begins to build a spherical web and eat the loot (prey). At dawn, it would destroy its net and return to its nest, disguised as just a small tree.
The oval disc runs through its belly, making it the perfect camouflage against branches
4. Pygmy hippocampus
These are the smallest hippocampus in the world, only a few centimeters from the tip of the nose to the tail. They live in the coral triangle of Southeast Asia, and you can see that the lumps above them are calcified nodules that grow to match the polyps of the surrounding corals. Their size and their amazing ability to seamlessly camouflage into tropical coral reef habitats means they have a low risk of prey. If they float onto corals of different colors, their color changes to fuse again.
The lumps you can see on the pygmy hippocampus are calcified nodules whose growth matches the polyps of the surrounding corals.
5. Garnish the crabs
If you're going to protect yourself from predators, you'd better look great when you do. Decorative crabs, as the name suggests, decorate themselves with seaweed, corals and sponges to beautify their surroundings and make themselves harder to see against the background of seaweed, corals and sponges. Their shells are covered with tiny hairs like Velcro, so when they choose the right ornament, it stays stuck. Some of them are even smarter, deliberately decorating themselves with poisonous seaweed or spiny anemones that don't bother the crabs themselves but make anything that tries to eat them unpleasant. Best of all, they even recycle them. When they grow out of their existing enclosures, they carefully remove all the decorations and reinstall them into their new homes.
Their shells are covered with tiny hairs like Velcro, so when they choose the right ornament, it stays stuck.
6. Arctic rabbit
You have to make up your mind to catch an Arctic hare. Although they look a lot like other hares during the summer months, in the winter their fur turns bright white and they are more or less invisible against a snowy background. In addition, their eyes are located on either side of the head, so they can even see nearly 360 ° without moving their muscles, and they can run at nearly 40 mph – oh, as if all of this is not enough, they have thick black eyelashes, like sunglasses, so they will almost certainly see you before you see them. Good luck!
In winter, their fur turns bright white.
7. Owls
Sometimes, survival does boil down to evolution. Owls' feathers look like habitat trees enough to camouflage them as such species. Those big "ears" you see in some owls aren't ears at all — like most birds, owls' ears are just small holes in the sides of their heads. "Ears" or "horns" are actually a cluster of feathers simply because they look like branches when lifted to help them hide. Owls also change shape to hide more effectively, which is known as a "hidden pose." They either squatted or lifted themselves higher and thinner, looked less like owls, and even swayed in the wind to mimic branches.
The owl changes shape to hide more effectively, which is known as the "hidden pose".
8. Rattlesnake
Found in the wind-blown deserts of the United States and Mexico, the sidewinder's camouflage motives are very simple. In addition to having a sand-brown body with oval markings that makes it almost invisible in the rocks and debris of the desert floor, it also rocks itself into the sand, leaving it partially covered. The raised scales above its eyes shield it from sunlight and protect its eyes from sand while it waits for its victims. When a small rodent approaches it, it will be attacked by a rattlesnake, or inject the rat with venom, then follow the victim until it dies and then eat it.
Rattlesnakes are able to shake themselves into the sand so that they are partially covered