IN FOCUS | Look closely
This leaf-tailed gecko blends in beautifully with its background of tree bark. Found (though perhaps only by the eagle-eyed) in Madagascar, these arboreal reptiles rely on their coloration and jagged outline – created by flaps of skin – to avoid ending up as lunch for the local owls, rats and snakes. Like other gecko species, these lizards have ‘sticky’ feet that enable them to cling vertically to tree trunks, where they’re likely to remain undetected, as long as they don’t move.