Perfect Camouflage - Both Shape and Coloration

As we walked home from dinner last night, my friend, Anna spotted this strange creature hanging from the white railing along the path.  This is the largest walking stick that I have ever seen!  Five of its legs are holding on to the railing, the sixth leg is dangling off to the right.  Having six legs is one of the characteristics that tells you that this animal is an insect. Its head is right next to the tip of Anna’s middle finger and its long tail is hanging straight down.

Thank goodness this walking stick decided to hang out on the railing rather than in a tree.  We never would have spotted it in a tree!  Notice that it is shaped like a thin branch of a tree and it also has the perfect mottled coloration to look like a twig or branch.  Nature creates well-adapted creatures for survival and this is one of my favorites!

- Fran Zakutansky

Frog on a Raft

Frog on a raft

I was out walking in the rainforest and came up to a shallow pond.  As I looked carefully in the pond, I saw thousands of cute little tadpoles swimming around.  As I walked around the pond, I saw the coolest thing.  It looked like a white foam raft about the size of the palm of my hand and sitting pretty on top of the raft was a very small, but adorable frog.  Take a look at the photo.  The frogs make this foam raft by kicking their feet in the water as they release a liquid.  The mother (female) frog lays her eggs into the middle of the raft.

The floating raft is a good adaptation to protect the eggs from hungry predators, prevents them from dehydrating, and protects them from parasites and bacteria.  It’s convenient that the eggs hatch into tadpoles right in the water where the tadpoles swim.  After the tadpoles hatch, the foam disintegrates (it is biodegradable).  After a few weeks, the tadpoles start growing legs and lose their tails and become adult frogs and they look like the frog in the photo perching on top of the foam.

- Fran Zakutansky