Hide And Seek

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, ready or not, here I come! Yes, animals do something in life that is like the popular game, Hide N' Seek, yet they use this for their own survival. What they do is look like their environment, either to be able to capture food without being seen, or to hide from predators to avoid becoming lunch. Many animals have developed features and patterns to look as close as they can to their environment. I'll go over different animals, how they hide, and why do they hide. But first, these ways of playing hide and seek are called camouflage, a rather silly name. The first animal is the ornate wobbegong. It is a predator, meaning it will hide so it can capture its breakfast. Its multicolor pattern on its body lets it blend in perfectly with the shallow, rocky bed that it lies on in tropical waters off Australia and New Guinea. It also has weird "whisker" thingies that hang off its lips, that look like seaweed. Some animals have not only lookalike patterns, but they also have body features that make them "become" their environment. We have more hide and seek champions! Since we're in the ocean, I figured we might as well head on to the beach and meet the ringed plover. Its gray body fits in well will a rocky patch, so soaring predators from above will see a tasty snack (for animals) but think it's a plain rock. It not only does this for itself, but will guard over its young like this. A true hide and seek champion is the leopard flounder, with more multicolor blotches to also blend into the seafloor perfectly, just by lying flat. But what makes this fish great is the fact it can change color to make it look even more like its environment. We've seen many different ways of camouflage, so in the comments write who you think would win a hide and seek match, whether it's that shark, the flounder, or the plover. I'm interested to see your answers!

By Tessa Sagner