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How the Animal Kingdom Celebrates HalloweenForget the Costume Shop. Some of the Wildest Halloween Looks Come Straight from Nature.By Victoria Olaya for Ruta Pantera on 10/26/2026 11:23:18 AM |
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| Halloween is the one night of the year when looking a little unusual is practically a requirement. While the rest of us are busy planning costumes, the natural world seems to have been dressing for the occasion all along. And some of its creatures, frankly, put our best efforts to shame.
5. The Thorny Devil Best Dragon, and Pocket Size! Picture a dragon, shrink it to about 20 centimeters, dust it desert-red, and send it out to patrol the Australian outback eating ants. That’s the thorny devil: a lizard that covered every available inch of itself in spikes and then, feeling the look still wasn’t there, added a pair of horns over the eyes. The showstopper is on the back of its neck, a spiny knob that passes for a spare head. When trouble shows up, the lizard tucks its real head between its front legs and offers the substitute, like handing a mugger a decoy wallet. Whether it actually fools anyone is still more theory than proof, which has not stopped anyone from being impressed. In between, it sways along in a stiff, rocking walk and eats ants by the hundreds, sometimes thousands, a day. Terrifying costume. Extremely humble catering. 4. The Orchid Mantis Best Floral Arrangement The orchid mantis, from the forests of Southeast Asia, comes as a flower: white and pink, with petal-like lobes flaring from its legs. It’s the kind of costume somebody spends three weekends on, and then nobody at the party can say which flower it is. And that turns out to be literally true. When researchers went looking for the specific flower the mantis is supposed to be, they couldn’t find one. It’s less “orchid” than “Flower, Generic,” the botanical equivalent of a bedsheet ghost. It works anyway. In a field study in Malaysia, pollinating insects flew up to isolated orchid mantises at a higher rate than they visited real flowers, which makes this the only costume on our list where the trick-or-treaters end up as the candy. |
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3. The King Vulture Best Face Paint Most vultures dress for the job: dark, practical, a little funereal. The king vulture, a bird of lowland forests from southern Mexico down to northern Argentina, wears a clean white-and-black body, and then, above the collar, a bare head and neck that looks as if it was painted by someone who found a box with every crayon in it. Orange, yellow, red, purplish blue. A fleshy orange crest on the bill. Loose folds of skin hanging off the sides of the face. It is less “bird of prey” than “clown who lost a bet.” The look has a long résumé. The species turns up in Maya codices, and at a carcass, other vultures reportedly step back when a king arrives. This is the only recorded case of face paint that comes with right of way. 2. The Emperor Tamarin Best Facial Hair This is a monkey of about 500 grams, roughly a pound, living in the southwestern Amazon of Peru, Brazil and Bolivia. Out past its chin sweep two long white whiskers, like a pair of bedsheets hung out to dry. Against that dark face, the effect is of a very small, very serious man who has just been told his table isn’t ready. The species name, imperator, is generally said to be a joke at the expense of Kaiser Wilhelm II, whose own moustache stood up and pointed at the sky. The tamarin’s goes the other way, which, depending on your views on moustache politics, is either a rebuke or a refinement. It isn’t a boys-only look, either. Females wear it too. 1. The Red-Lipped Batfish Best Red-Carpet Look Look at the rest of this fish and you’ll understand why the lipstick gets all the attention. The red-lipped batfish, a resident of the Galápagos that has also been recorded off Peru, is basically a flat, grayish-brown pancake with a small horn-like lure on its forehead. Then comes the mouth: glossy, fire-engine red, 1940s film star, set in a face that seems to be frowning about it. It is the only winner here that looks as if it had a stylist for one body part and gave up on the rest. Nobody is sure why the lips are red. The leading guess is courtship, which is where the research stops and the speculation begins. The fish is also a poor swimmer and mostly walks along the seabed on modified fins, so the glamour arrives on foot, with the unsteady gait of someone in new shoes. Its species name honors Charles Darwin, which seems like a lot to ask of a fish whose most famous feature is its lip color. Honorable Mentions The Raccoon: Best Bandit Costume Most of this list requires a trip to a rainforest, a reef or the Galápagos. The raccoon requires a back porch after dark. Found from southern Canada down through Mexico and Central America, it wears the classic bandit look: a black mask across the eyes, edged in white, and a bushy tail ringed in black. The outfit comes complete from birth, since kits already have the mask. Nobody is sure what it is for. The guesses include cutting glare and helping raccoons recognize one another in the dark, and none of them explains the confidence. It has never, in any recorded sighting, been seen out of costume. The Pink Fairy Armadillo: Best Armor in a Flattering Shade Armor is traditionally gray. The pink fairy armadillo, the smallest of its kind, at roughly 10 to 15 centimeters and from the dry plains of central Argentina, went with blush. The color comes from blood vessels in the shell, which WWF says is more about regulating body temperature than stopping teeth. Underneath is soft white fur, as if the knight wore a hoodie beneath the plate. It also doubles as a tiny bulldozer, with huge digging claws and a flat rear plate for packing sand behind it. Which brings up the one flaw in the entry: it is the finest outfit on the list, and it is worn almost entirely underground. The trophy will be presented as soon as the batfish finishes walking to the stage. The armadillo has politely asked to receive its award underground. |
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References: Red-Lipped Batfish: Wikimedia Commons, Red-lipped Bat fish. Check the file page for the photographer and license details. Emperor Tamarin: Wikimedia Commons, Emperor Tamarin portrait. Check the file page for the photographer and license details. King Vulture: Wikimedia Commons, Sarcoramphus papa – National Zoo, Washington, USA. Check the file page for the photographer and license details. Orchid Mantis: Wikimedia Commons, Orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus), Entomica. Check the file page for the photographer and license details. Thorny Devil: Wikimedia Commons, Thornydevil02. Check the file page for the photographer and license details. Raccoon: Wikimedia Commons, Racoon @ Stanley Park. Check the file page for the photographer and license details. Pink Fairy Armadillo: Wikimedia Commons, Chlamyphorus truncatus. Check the file page for the photographer and license details. |
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