12 Animals That Are Masters of Disguise
Mimic Octopus
- Class: Invertebrates
- Order: Octopoda
- Family: Octopodidae
- Habitat: Malaysia, Indonesia
- Camouflage: Mimicry
Officially, the mimic octopus is called “thaumoctopus mimicus”. And this animal loves to play dress up. In this picture, you can hardly differentiate it from its sandy surroundings. But it can do more than that: sometimes it looks like a sea snake, or a flounder, then it might look like a squid or a stingray. This makes it the first animal that can impersonate not just one, but several other animals. A couple of examples:
Lionfish: the octopus changes its color and makes its arms look like the spines of a lionfish.
Sea snake: the octopus hides in a cave and only pokes two arms out. It spreads them out in separate directions.
Flounder: the octopus pulls its arms in close so it looks like it has a wide, flat body like a flounder.
