San Diego Zoo: Hiding in Plain Sight

Visitors go to zoos to see the animals. That much is perfectly clear. What’s also clear at points is that some of the animals have made a profession of being hard to see.

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Not, obviously pink or orange flamingos, to be sure, but they’re obviously playing in a different league from the tortoise at the top, who’s clearly trying to convince us he’s a member of a (literal) rock band. An impression that can only be enhanced by tucking his head out of the way.

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But their resemblance to their background is not the only skill in their quivers; as the old tortoise and the hare story goes, they are slow but persistent. They have been known to slowly cover miles to get back to where they want to be; the zoo even knows of a 100-tortoise that scaled a ten-foot wall to get home.

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Even when the background isn’t as good a match, spots of different colors help to hide the shape and identity of animals.

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This ‘green’ lizard, for instance, is actually a mix of colors; note how his tail blends in one way and his body another, allowing a fair blend to a variety of leaf, bark or earth backgrounds.

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Same trick, but different colors for a different environment.

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How well do they do it? See if you can spot a lizard hiding in here!P1130547

Black-throated monitor here, by the way. Notice that long, forked white tongue in the second shot? He was hoovering up insects with it…

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Who? Me? A tortoise? You must be kidding. Nothing to look at, nothing at all, keep moving please. Go look at the iguana…

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If it weren’t for his lunch-time salad, this fellow could almost disappear.

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Speaking of salad, here’s an Asian leaf turtle, floating around disguised as, well…you guessed it. In the picture below him, if you look carefully, you can see a river terrapin. Just to the right of the little fish. And then a pair of turtles working hard at being green.

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This is a gharial, sort of like an alligator drawn by a kindergarten artist and then brought to life.

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And a real alligator, a Chinese one, just being a log…until it’s time to eat.

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Again with the multi-colors and the patterns; this one is a San Diego gopher snake. He’s a real faker: all his fancy dress is copied from a rattlesnake, and when he’s approached and feels threatened he shakes his tail back and forth like a rattler, although he’s completely harmless.

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And here we have a pair of rock-looking toads who frankly I wouldn’t want to be near even if they were easy to spot.

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And one last tortoise, out in the open and going nowhere. Ever. He’s bronze!

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