Picture the scenario: you're lost in the jungle (don't fret over which jungle specifically) and you know there's a tiger lurking in the undergrowth.
It's right in front of you and will eat you if you don't spot it within 12 seconds, but you just can't see it.
You've got a dozen seconds to save your life and spot the ferocious feline before it turns you into its next meal, your eyes dart back and forth across the undergrowth, trying to spot the distinctive signs of fauna amidst the flora.
So can you do it?
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Take a look at the image below and spot the tiger within 12 seconds, if you do, then you get to feel good about how clever and perceptive you are.
How did you do? If you could see the tiger, then congratulations and award yourself a biscuit.
Of course, you might just have been lucky in spotting the tiger, and you shouldn't put too much stock in an IQ test from Reddit where you play 'spot the tiger' for the sum total of 12 seconds.
Still, it's a fun little brainteaser which you might solve at first glance or may require you to painstakingly search each pixel as the clock ticks down.
What this test is really for is being able to spot details that are out of the ordinary and quickly piece together why that might be.
There are plenty of optical illusions which do something like this, posing you a visual challenge and essentially asking you to solve it very quickly.
There's one that is as simple as asking you which building is closer to the camera, and while that sounds easy at first, it can be tougher than it seems.
As for the solution to our tiger conundrum, with a little bit of thanks to Microsoft Paint, I've been able to point it out to you.
Yes, they may be big, orange and stripey, but tigers do know how to blend in with their environment and have a fur pattern which helps break up their silhouette, so anyone looking for a distinctive cat shape in the bushes will have a hard time spotting it.
See one out in the open and you'll probably think, 'holy f**k that's a tiger', but with it nestled in the undergrowth, your eyes might pass over it many times without picking out the feline form.
Should you ever actually end up in the unenviable position of coming face-to-face with a tiger, then your best chance is to keep looking at it.
They prefer to ambush their prey, so if they know you can see them, it might give them paws for thought, though there's no guarantee that they won't still attack.
Topics: Weird, Optical Illusion, Reddit
Joe Harker