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# Why Does Every Animal Look Like This?
- URL: https://www.cascadepbs.org/show/its-okay-be-smart/episode/why-does-every-animal-look-like-this-eiztuv/
- Published: 2024-04-02T23:16:44.000Z
- Updated: 2025-08-20T09:54:41.000Z
- Description: Countershading is everywhere, and it may be nature’s most successful form of camouflage.
- Author: Cascade PBS Staff
- Tags: Be Smart, Season 11, Episode 5, #ZZZ_Episode_110381d3-f926-4493-b4e8-9fe311fabd70, #episode, #ZZZ_Show_dc38a6e9-266e-43c1-b647-45e7445fad27, #v1.16

In the race to survive, both predators and prey use visual tricks to get ahead. One nearly universal trick is countershading, a color pattern that helps animals erase their own shadows or blend into different backgrounds. It’s worked well enough that nature has produced this pattern over and over again, all over Earth, for at least tens of millions of years.