Amal Al-Sibai

Saudi Gazette

A popular game that all kids love to play is hide-and-seek. Animals play hide-and-seek too, but they do not hide for fun.



Smaller animals learn to hide so that they can avoid being hunted and eaten by predators, which are larger animals that prey on other animals. And sometimes a larger animal hides so that it can sneak up on the animal which it wants to hunt and eat.



The type of hiding which is done for survival is called camouflage and there are different types of camouflaging that animals use to trick their attackers.



The most common type of camouflaging is when the color and patterns of the animal help it to blend in with its surrounding environment, and this is called concealing coloration. It makes it very hard to spot the animal.



Try finding the camouflaged animals in these pictures, but pay close attention because some of these animals are very good at playing hide-and-seek.



The animals that live in the cold Arctic habitats are white and their fur blends in beautifully with the snow, such as the polar bear, Arctic fox, snowy owl, and snowshoe hare.



Look at the stone flounder and how the colors and patterns on its skin look exactly like the pebbles and stones on the ocean floor. If it was being chased by a hungry fish, all it has to do is remain absolutely still and it can safely hide among the stones and pebbles.



The stingray, an amazing sea creature which was the school teacher in the cartoon film Nemo, is camouflaging so well that you can hardly tell it apart from the sand that it is hiding in.



The boreal owl lives in forests and it is brown in color. The boreal owl can camouflage with the bark of the tree and if it weren’t for the owl’s eyes, you probably could not even see it!



For tree frogs, an excellent defense method against its predators is its bright green color to help it blend in with the leaves and grass.



Another way to hide or camouflage is called disguise camouflage. A small animal pretends to be a non-living object in its environment like a rock or a stick so that the predator thinks that it is something else and will go away and not harm it.



The walking stick is actually an insect that looks like a thin stick or twig; it uses this nifty disguise to hide from predators.



The leaf tailed gecko is called that because it looks like an autumn leaf. A gecko is a lizard which lives in tropical countries that have a rainforest habitat. The leaf tailed gecko lives in the islands of Madagascar.



It is a very unique animal; it has flat, yellow or brown eyes, no eyelids, and is the only type of reptile that is able to use its voice. It sleeps all day and is able to sleep on trees without worrying about predators because it disguises itself as a leaf.   



A leaf katydid is a small green insect that looks like a leaf of the plants that it lives on.



Another fascinating type of camouflage is mimicry, when a small animal or insect looks like another bad tasting or poisonous animal or insect to scare off predators. It is like hiding behind a scary costume.



The elephant hawk caterpillar is just a small, innocent, harmless caterpillar, but it has two black false eyes on the top of its head and it looks like and moves like a snake to scare away predators. Birds that normally eat caterpillars back away when they see elephant hawk caterpillars because these caterpillars look like snakes.



All living creatures from the tiniest insect to the largest whale and even you and me, are all incredible. Glory be to Allah who created all living things.