I included a photo of a deer camouflaged in thick cover in my photos of my day trip to Northwest Nebraska’s Chadron State Park. What I didn’t do is highlight the photo so you could easily locate the deer.
Here, for those of you didn’t see the white-tailed deer is a clue:
The deer‘s front end is in the yellow circle, but here’s a further enlargement of the whole deer. The yellow arrow points at her head:
Hard to see . I thought of an optical illusion. But since you say you saw it on the road before the animal enters the foliage , I try to guess. The wild animals have the art of camouflage, mimetism, homochromy etc…
There is a brilliant red bird in America called the cardinal. Amazingly enough, when it is in a tree among the foliage, it’s almost impossible to see! Animals developed amazing abilities to blend into their habitats, eh?!
Yes the adaptation allows them to survive
Very well indeed!
I did find the deer! We had a big buck here this morning, eating apples off the tree and pruning the lower branches. Time for me to get the blueberry fence up.
Oops! Bambi is cute until he gets into the garden! Good luck, Livonia!
Took me a while to find him 🙂
Yes, Many people gave up, which shows how effectively Mrs. Deer was hiding in plain view! I decided I should help those people with a closer look, and I think the final enlargement shows the deer sufficiently well enough for everyone to get to enjoy the deer.
The close look didn’t help much. Had to stare almost a minute before I saw him 🙂
Good for you! They are beautiful animals, and I wanted to share that with people unfamiliar with the species. That’s why I included a link to the Wikipedia entry for white-tailed deer. The photo of the hiding deer shows you how they are successful in their environment.
Yes, I thought about that after struggling to find the deer in your photograph – I must have walked very close to the hiding deer and had no idea.
Movement is the thing that gives them away, and they can be so still when hiding….!
You have sharp eyes to spot that little deer.
She was on the road when I first saw her, then she ran into the brush. It was easier to spot her, then, because I knew where she was!
Thank you for helping us find it 🙂
I got comments on Facebook, where the blog also appears, suggesting it wasn’t as easy to do as I thought. It was the only friendly thing to do, to en;large the section where the deer is till she was more obvious.
I did see it in the picture you posted earlier! They are good at hiding in the thick underbrush of forests. I was hiking down a wooded path one summer’s day when all of a sudden, a young buck rose from a bush and leaped out into my path. It apparently was enjoying an afternoon snooze when I came alone and disturbed him. Had he not jumped up, I never would have seen him. It got my heart rate speeding for awhile!
I bet it did! Wild animals can be very stealthy for their own good or to overcome their prey. Another one that is pretty startling is great horned owls when they are alarmed by you coming too close to their nests and owlets. You can’t hear them coming, and they buzz you so close you can feel their movement in the air. Anyway, congratulations on seeing the deer in the earlier photo! That was the hardest test and you passed it.