This camouflaged snake has been driving the internet crazy. Can you find it?
Animals are some of the most beautiful and interesting things in the universe. They have so much diversity, beauty, and uniqueness that you could spend a lifetime learning little bits about them. One of the most interesting things about animals is their ability to adapt to their environment and hide!
Camouflage, also called cryptic coloration, is a defense mechanism or tactic that organisms use to disguise their appearance, usually to blend in with their surroundings. Organisms use camouflage to mask their location, identity, and movement. – National Geographic
One recent picture shows just how sneaky they can really be.
Herpetology is the study of reptiles and amphibians (lots of creepy crawlies here)! Among the things that a herpetologist would study are snakes, humanity’s greatest collective fear (well, maybe apart from spiders).
Snakes are some of the greatest stealth hunters in the animal kingdom.
I mean, apart from chameleons and octopuses who can literally change their color to suit their environment, snakes are usually the best disguised. Their skin usually reflects the environment they live in to such an extent that they become invisisble.
“They need camouflage not only to hide from their predators but to sneak up on their prey so their prey won’t run away. Some snakes can go under the sand and look like sand moving in the wind but you can see the snakes by looking for s-shaped marks in the sand but leave those marks where ever they move,” – Shorecrest
Just thinking about that sort of stuff can give you the heebie-jeebies!
You aren’t going to bed right now, are you? Good. If you are up for a challenge, one herpetology student decided to post a picture challenge that everyone needs to take a look at.
Helen Bond Plylar is from Florida and specializes in pythons.
She decided to post a photo of a snake she was working with, just to show how well it can camouflage itself. The picture is just an innocuous-looking photo of some dead leaves, a seemingly perfect place to place a bare foot on – BUT YOU WOULD BE WRONG!
Take a minute and see if you can find it!
If you can’t, that’s totally fine, you are like the rest of the internet (normal humans). The photo was actually taken by Jerry Davis of Texas, but our snake expert from Florida couldn’t help but repost it in amazement.
People either couldn’t find it or were dead wrong!
https://twitter.com/SssnakeySci/status/856866225066041345
You can spend hours looking through the comments of the photo, getting a laugh (or maybe a hint at the snake’s location).
“Honestly… I spent 5 minutes looking and I could not find it. In the end I cheated!” Laurene commented.
One guy thought he found it but ended up being wrong when he came back to check!
“Ok found it. It just appeared magically though. What I thought was a snake wasn’t” Anthony Siciliano commented.
One person was honest (and reflects most of our attitudes).
“I couldn’t find it after enlarging the picture, no more hiking for me” another wrote.
Finally ready to see the snake? Check it out below!
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https://twitter.com/SssnakeySci/status/856149745827491840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E856149745827491840%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fanimalchannel.co%2Fcamouflaged-snake-leaves-internet%2F