Monthly competition: The secret egg challenge

by Eco Kids Planet June 02, 2026

Monthly competition: The secret egg challenge

This competition asked you to design a secret egg hidden somewhere in nature, and your entries went far beyond the obvious nests and burrows.

Eggs arrived disguised as pine cones, floating on leaf boats, perched on volcano ledges, tucked into cloud cover and even masquerading as chocolate Easter eggs to fool foxes. You invented brand-new species – sea divers, forest divers, pinewood gliders, horned salamanders – and built whole ecosystems around them, complete with food chains, predators and clever defence strategies.

Thank you to every reader who took up the challenge and thought like a parent bird, fish, reptile or imaginary creature trying to keep their precious egg safe.

Molly, age 8, Bath

All eggs on board!

Tulip, age 8, Guernsey

"This is Floghorn. His mum put him on the edge of a Volcano. Yes a Volcano, on a ledge halfway down."

Eddie, age 10, Redruth

Easter bird

Sophie, age 8, Bishop's Storford

Sophie didn’t just designan egg – she built twowhole ecosystems…

Sea Diver

Diet: Eel leapers, water slips, ruby glimmers

Enemies: Fear of the Forest, swirlfish

Defence: Screeches to wake a slumber shark, which attacks nearby eel leapers – the leapers fly up and strike the enemy

Egg: Floats on the water, blue with white spots so it looks like the sea sparkling

Forest Diver

Diet: Silvermice, wood ladybirds, centaricas, miliricas

Enemies: Fear of the Forest

Defence: Curls into a ball with wings out, looking like a vine daisy

Egg: Hard-shelled to survive being dropped, then softens to let the chick hatch. Green with purple spots, to match the vine daisy

 

More amazing entries from our readers 

Ella, age 9, Edinburgh

Pinewood glider

The pinewood glider lays eggs that look like pinecones and have a smell that squirrels don't like. The hatchlings keep their pinecone pattern until they are 5 months old to keep safe.

Matilda, age 9

Maya, age 11, USA

It’s the late Triassic, and these eggs are the first dinosaurs to evolve! They are very well hidden beneath a fern, but the predators are searching for them. Can the camouflage hide them well enough?

Silvia, age 13, Broxbourne

A paper cut out of how a baby fox would look like if hatched from a egg. It shows the life of a fox, the mother on the left taking care of the baby fox hatching and a young fox catching its pray in the back. The background is hand painted and the foxes crafted from painted paper. 


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