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How and why animals developed camouflage

period of time in which they're more vulnerable, when they're puppies.
Many BIRD CHICKS are perfectly confounded with the ground where their nest is placed, after their birth and also their eggs are like this, when brown and dotted to appear like stones or ground pieces.

Young DEERS have a white-dotted fur that confounds them with the flowers of a meadow or a wood; then, they neither have a body smell and, instinctively, they always stay still also when the predator is very close.

The SNOW-HARE and the WHITE FOX have a totally white fur in winter to confound themselves in the snow in winter but, at the end of the winter, they change their fur into brown, the colours of soil, wood and dry grass; this is a beautiful example of seasonal camouflage, changing with seasons.
Obviously, they are more endangered when a precocious spring makes dissolve snow before they have the time to change their white colour, or, conversely, when the winter is too early or sudden to come.

Even the puppies of predators like LIONS and CHEETAH have a defensive camouflage when they' re very young, to save themselves from hyenas and even adults of their own species; when they're adult, instead, their camouflage becomes useful to attack their preys.
Animals are well aware of their camouflage abilities and are careful to choose the best zone in which to live.

The camouflage can assume the most incredible and specialized shapes; there're INSECTS that have their body totally similar to leaves, stones, wood branches and even move themselves as the object they imitate; BUTTERFLIES totally similar to the tree cortex or to the stones where they live, FISH that are similar to algae.

Some SNAKES are not poisonous, but they disguise having the skin very similar to that of a poisonous snake species, to be let in peace; in these cases, their camouflage is not with their environment, but with the body of another (dangerous) animal.

The CHAMELEON, instead, can change quickly its skin colour by the environment where it is, thanks to many specialized chromatic glandes into their skin, able to change colour with various nervous stimulations and also moves slowly, copying the movements of leaves.
Also many OCTOPUSES do it with their skin; this offers multiple camouflage options, not tied to only one habitat, like for many other animals.
Surely, this is the most advanced and evolute camouflage technique.
Nature is really fantastic!

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