Masters of disguise: Stunning pictures of the tricks used by creatures to camouflage themselves

Hiding under lily pads and blending into their environment these species of the animal kingdom are masters of disguise.

With the ability to fade, blend and merge these animals use the art of concealment as a means of survival in the natural world.

Animals use two basic methods to conceal themselves in nature: general resemblance and special resemblance.

With general resemblance animals use colour to blend in with their habitat so that they're almost invisible.

Waiting patiently underneath this lily in the Australian swamplands, this young crocodile uses his deep green skin to blend in perfectly with its habitat, waiting to strike.

In contrast the three toed sloth in Costa Rica is almost invisible as it clings effortlessly to this tree trunk.


An endangered species, the pygmy three-toed sloth is characterised by usually blotchy, pale grey-brown fur and a tan-coloured face with a distinctive dark band across the forehead, from which long, shaggy hair hangs over the face, giving a hooded appearance.

Sloths have an unusual means of camouflage to avoid perdition; their outer fur is often coated in algae, giving the pelage a greenish tint that helps hide them in their forest habitat.

Others, like the two month old cheetah hiding under a wheel in Kenya's Masa Mara, and the grizzly bear in the snow North America, simply use their cunning and guile to remain hidden.


With special resemblance animals use a combination of colour, shape and behaviour to help them appear like something in their habitat.

Sitting in an iris flower, this goldenrod spider in France, this goldenrod spider is a member of the crab spider family. It is best known for its ability to change its colour from white to yellow in order to camouflage among flowers.

Usually found wherever there are yellow and white flowers, especially goldenrod and daisies, they eat insects, either by hunting on the ground, or by ambushing from a flower.



However the master of disguise is the mimic octopus, shown here in the Maldives.

Like the harlequin crab, they use their colours to merge into their surrounding environment.

But unlike the harlequin crab, the mimic octopus can undergo startling transformations into deadly or inedible animals so that predators avoid them.

The octopus' abilities have only recently been discovered and have been the subject of several scientific studies in recent years.




Like the mimic octopus, merlet's scorpionfish, seen here in the Lifou Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, harnesses the art of concealment to perfection.

This species tend to be dominated by colours that mimic their surroundings.

Additionally, these species are covered with numerous cirri, fleshy appendages, spines, and ridges; these appendages provide additional camouflage.

Like its name, the orchid mantis has white and pink projections over their legs, neck, and abdomen, allowing them can make a fantastic camouflage when placed on an orchid.

Regardless, these animals are so adaptable it would be easier to find Wally amongst these maters of disguise.

The Deadliest Creatures (Most Easy to Miss)

1. The Cone Snail: can kill you in less than 4 minutes

Say, for instance, you happen to be happily walking through the low surf merrily picking up and discarding shells, looking for just the right one to decorate your desk back at the office.

With no warning at all, however, you feel a sharp sting from one of those pretty shells -- a sting that quickly flares into a crawling agony. With that quick sting, the cone snail's barbed spear has insidiously injected you with one of the most potent neurotoxins in existence.

2. Poison Arrow Frog: Lethal Touch

That frog over there, for instance: that tiny, brilliantly colored tree frog. Doesn't he look like some kind of Faberge ornament, there against that vermilion leaf? Wouldn't such a natural jewel look just gorgeous in a terrarium back home?

"They are the only animal in the world known to be able to kill a human by touch alone। They can jump as far as 2 inches।"

3. The lazy clown of the insect world.
The adult moth is just a moth, but the hairs of the caterpillar are juicy with nasty stuff, so nasty that dozens of people die every year from just touching them. By the way, it’s not a good way to go, either: their venom is a extremely powerful anticoagulant, death happening as the blood itself breaks down. Not fun. Very not fun.
4. Beaked Sea Snake

Another creature of nightmares that doesn’t come with a theme song is a strange import to the world aquatica. When you think snake you usually think of dry land. But if you go paddling around the Persian Gulf (or coastal islands of India) keep a wary eye out for the gently undulating wave of Enhydrina Schistosa.

5. Stone Fish waits for you to step on it

But it’s not time to leave the sea quite yet. There are two nasty things in the blue depths you should spend many a sleepless night frightened of. For the big one you’ll have to wait a bit, for the one right below it in terrifying lethality you just have to watch your step when you’re walking along the bottom of the ocean.

6. Box Jellyfish should really be called the "coffin" jellyfish



Chironex fleckeri: a tiny jellyfish found off the coast of Australia and southeastern Asia. Only about sixteen inches long, it has four eye-clusters with twenty-four eyes, its tentacles carry thousands of nematocysts, microscopic stingers activated not by ill-will but by a simple brush against shell, or skin. Do this and they fire, injecting anyone and anything with the most powerful neurotoxin known.
As you can see on the top left of the image below, it's pretty hard to notice Chironex Fleckeri in the wild: