Hi there! I’m Jay, and today I want to tell you about one of my favorite costumes. A few years ago, my whole family dressed up as characters from the TV show “The Magic School Bus.” Even our dog joined in the fun by wearing a chameleon costume to look like Miss Frizzle’s pet chameleon, Liz!
Someone named Monroe asked me an interesting question: Do wild animals ever dress up in costumes? Let’s think about it! People wear costumes to look like someone or something else, or to show a different side of themselves. For example, when I was a kid, I loved dressing up as Batman. It made me feel strong and brave!
But what about animals? Do they wear costumes too? Well, let’s take a look at some amazing animals that do something similar. Meet the decorator crab! This crab uses special hairs on its shell to stick things like shells and plants to its body. It looks like it’s wearing a costume!
Why would a decorator crab want to look like a pile of ocean floor stuff? It’s all about camouflage! Camouflage helps animals blend in with their surroundings. This makes it harder for other animals to spot them. For example, a seadragon looks like seaweed, and a leopard’s spots help it hide in the trees.
Camouflage can help animals sneak up on their prey or hide from predators. The decorator crab uses its disguise to look like part of the ocean floor, keeping it safe from becoming another animal’s lunch!
Now, let’s meet the mimic octopus, the master of disguise! Unlike the decorator crab, the mimic octopus doesn’t stick things to itself. Instead, it can change the shape and color of its body to look like other animals.
When the mimic octopus flattens and turns tan, it looks like a poisonous solefish. When it spreads its arms with stripes, it looks like a venomous lionfish. And when it hides in the sand, it can look like a sea snake!
By mimicking these dangerous creatures, the mimic octopus can scare away other animals, even though it’s not dangerous itself.
So, do wild animals dress up like pirates or fairies? Not exactly, but some animals do disguise themselves to survive. They use camouflage and mimicry to catch food or avoid becoming food!
Next time you’re outside, keep an eye out for animals. You never know what surprises nature has in store!
That’s all for today! Thanks for the great question, Monroe. We’ll be back with more fun topics soon. In the meantime, you can vote on our next question: Who invented candy? What would happen if you didn’t have a skull? Or why are so many people scared of bugs?
Stay curious, and see you next time!
Camouflage Art: Gather some art supplies like colored paper, scissors, and glue. Create your own “decorator crab” by cutting out a crab shape and decorating it with bits of paper to help it blend into a background you choose. Think about what colors and shapes would help your crab hide. Once you’re done, show your creation to a friend or family member and see if they can spot your crab easily!
Animal Observation Walk: Go on a nature walk with an adult and try to spot animals or insects using camouflage. Look closely at leaves, trees, and the ground. Can you find a bug that looks like a stick or a leaf? Talk about why these animals might want to blend in with their surroundings. How does it help them stay safe?
Mimicry Game: Play a game of “Animal Charades” with your friends or family. Take turns pretending to be an animal that uses mimicry, like the mimic octopus. Use your body to show how the animal might move or look. Can others guess which animal you are pretending to be? Discuss how mimicry helps these animals survive in the wild.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Hey, it’s Jay! I want to show you one of my favorite costumes. A few years ago, my whole family went as characters from the TV show “The Magic School Bus.” Our dog even wore a chameleon costume to look like Miss Frizzle’s pet chameleon, Liz.
Someone named Monroe has a question about costumes. Let’s call Monroe now.
Hi, Jay! Hey, Monroe! I have a question for you. Do wild animals ever dress up in costumes?
Great question! To figure out whether wild animals wear costumes, we might start by thinking about what a costume even is. After all, people wear different things and act differently in all kinds of situations, depending on where we are, who we’re with, and how we’re feeling.
For me, I think a costume is when you make yourself look like something or someone other than yourself, or when you dress or act differently to bring out a part of yourself that you don’t always show. For example, when I was a kid, I had a Batman costume that I loved. Like any other kid, there were times when I felt ordinary, small, or scared, but when I dressed up as Batman, I felt strong, brave, and special.
It can also be fun to have others see you differently than they normally do. When I dressed up as Batman, some people didn’t even notice it was me under the costume. People talked to me like I was a totally different person. Some of my friends even walked right by me at first!
But what about animals? Do they have reasons to dress up in costumes like we do? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, ready? Check this out! This is a clump of weeds and fuzz resting on the ocean floor. And now this clump of fuzz is going for a walk. Wait, that’s not normal! It turns out this is an animal called a decorator crab.
This isn’t the only look a decorator crab has either. Some decorator crabs look like this, or like this, or this. These are all decorator crabs, but they look so different, right? That’s because they’re wearing costumes! Decorator crabs have special hairs on their upper shells that can stick to things, sort of like Velcro. They use those sticky hairs to attach items like shells and underwater plants to their bodies.
But why would an animal do this? How could it possibly help the decorator crab to stick stuff from the ocean floor to their bodies? Well, to answer that, let’s play a game with some other animals in disguise. See if you can spot the animal here. It looks like a bunch of seaweed, right? But this part isn’t seaweed—it’s a seadragon!
Okay, one more. Can you spot it? It’s a leopard hidden in the trees! The leopard’s tan color and spots make it look like part of the tree dappled with spots of shade. Many animals use how they look to blend in with their surroundings. This is called camouflage.
Camouflage makes an animal harder to spot. An animal can use camouflage to sneak up on another animal that they want to eat, or they can use camouflage to confuse animals that want to eat them. That’s what this decorator crab is doing. Covered in fuzz and weeds, a decorator crab doesn’t look like a crab anymore; it just looks like part of the ocean floor, which keeps it safe from becoming another animal’s lunch.
But as stylish as they are, decorator crabs aren’t even the most complicated costumes under the sea. That honor goes to this creature: the mimic octopus.
Take a look! This mimic octopus is flat and tan, gliding along the ocean floor. But here’s the same animal looking totally different. Now, instead of flat and tan, it has red-brown stripes and arms that flare out. And here’s the same mimic octopus now, half-buried in the sand, with its arms long and sleek with dark stripes.
Mimic octopuses don’t add anything to change how they look like decorator crabs do. Instead, mimic octopuses can change the shape and color of their own bodies. Maybe you’ve heard of the word “mimic” before—it means to make yourself look or act exactly like someone else. That’s just what a mimic octopus does! It mimics other animals.
When a mimic octopus flattens and turns tan, it looks like a poisonous solefish. When the mimic octopus flares its arms out, it looks like a spiny, venomous lionfish. And when it hides in the sand with two stripy arms hanging out, it looks just like a venomous sea snake.
A mimic octopus isn’t particularly scary by itself; it doesn’t have venom or spikes or tough armor. But the animals it mimics do. By making itself look like these threatening creatures, a mimic octopus can convince other animals to stay away.
So, in summary, do wild animals dress up as pirates, fairies, and ghouls like people do? No, but some animals do disguise themselves as other animals or things to sneak up on animals they want to eat or to avoid getting eaten themselves.
So keep your eyes open for animals around you. What you see might not be what you get! That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks for asking, Monroe!
Now we’ll be back with a new episode in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, here are some older questions from the question jar. You can vote on which one you think we should send out next week. You can choose from: Who invented candy? What would happen if you didn’t have a skull? Or why are so many people scared of bugs?
So submit your vote when the video’s over. We want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week!
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Let me know if you need any further modifications!
