Biology

Camouflage

Camouflage is a technique of hiding or disguising itself from others and saves from expected risk or sometimes threat to life. This kind of character is found in animals abundantly. The literal meaning of camouflage is to hide or conceal by using any combination of colours, materials and illumination so that the object resembles the background or nearby environment. Military soldiers do the camouflaging by wearing clothing and/or colouring themselves to conceal from enemies. Some species like chameleons, fishes and octopuses are capable of changing their skin colours and patterns according to the surrounding environment to save their lives or to signal or to attract their partners. Some plants are also do camouflaging to save and being eaten by herbivores.

Camouflage patterns of the animals and plants allow them to blend with the surrounding environment. In animals, both prey and predators do camouflage to avoid their detection. Preys do it to save themselves whereas; predators do it to catch their food.

Camouflage

Techniques to Camouflaging

There are numbers of techniques or methods to do the camouflaging to hide against the background. Most of these methods are visible but some of them are based on sound and scent. Some of these techniques are being discussed hereunder:

Colouration

Nature has given abilities to some animals to change their skin colours or patterns against the surroundings such as strong contrasting or non-repeating markings against the environment. Colouration also has different types as disruptive, disguise and concealing colouring. Stripes and spots are disruptive camouflaging and this makes animal’s outlines undefined. For example, leopards, Egyptian nightjar and zebra use disruptive patterns. In disguise colouring, animals colour themselves in such a pattern that they look like non-food objects in their environment. Papuan frogmouth is a good example of disguise colouration that makes it resembling like a broken branch. Conceal colouring is done by different types of moths. They make their wings so colourful that hide their identity or conceal them against the environment.

Eliminating Shadow

Some animals have flattened bodies with sides thinning to an edge. They press their body to the surface in such a way that does not reveal their presence. Like ibex in the desert, flat horned lizards on the ground and ground-nesting bird Egyptian nightjar are some examples that show this type of camouflage. Egyptian nightjars, when resting in the ground, settle in position facing the sun. To hide the military vehicles, camouflage netting is used to minimize its shadow. The round-tail horned lizards live in a rocky area and when there is a threat to life it curves its back in such a way that it looks like a rock.

Self-decoration

Some animals to their identity from their surrounding, they use twigs, sand or pieces of shell to make themselves like a part of the environment. This type of arrangement of shells and other objects conceal their features and make them unidentified. For example, decorator crab covers itself with sea rocks, sponges and seaweeds to conceal it from the environment.    

Use of Camouflage Techniques by Humans

Though the use of camouflaging is old enough the wide use of these techniques started in the military purposely. Two British zoologists (Sir Edward Poulton and John Graham Kerr) and an American painter (Abbot Thayer) played a key role in introducing camouflaging techniques in the military. They also suggested the use of animal/bird mimicry or imitation for concealment.

Some kind of literature proves that camouflaging was in use in earlier times also. In ancient times, Mediterranean pirates used to paint their ships in blue-grey to conceal in 172-250 AD. In 360-400 AD, Julius Caesar painted the entire ship in bluish-green wax including ropes sails and even the crew of the ship. Before 1800, techniques of camouflage were used to conceal the military but were by limited forces. In the First World War, the French army deployed persons, camoufleurs, to design or create schemes for the covers of guns, dresses for the army. Soon after this success, armies of other countries followed them. Air forces and the Navy also started to use these techniques.

In the Second World War, the British zoologist Hugh Cott demonstrated the use of countershading, a camouflage technique, by painting two guns. One in conventional style whilst the other in countershading style. The aerial view of these guns showed that the counter-shaded gun was essentially invisible. In this war, bombers and night fighters were painted black and ships were painted in grey to create dazzle camouflage. After the success of the First World War, artists, painters and even filmmakers were employed by the armies of different countries in the Second World War. These people used to teach army personnel about the benefits of camouflage and also write down notes on this technique and provide them to soldiers.

After 1945, these techniques are now very much used to protect artilleries, vehicles, buildings, air crafts, soldiers and their positions from enemies. Nowadays, camouflaging has become irrelevant for air crafts as radar technology has come.

Other Applications of Camouflage

Cloths with camouflage printing are in use for hunting purposes. In the field sports like driven grouse hunting, hunters use to wear conceal dressings. Modern hunters use cryptic clothing with pictures of grass, local vegetation, branches, leaves, etc. to conceal themselves.

Civil structures are also, nowadays, trying to use camouflage colours to distract. For example, cellphones towers are decorated as a tree but the cost of making such structures are more compared to normal poles. Automotive manufacturers, when producing vehicles, use camouflage paintings or patterns to reduce the visual observations.

In the fashion and art world, fashion designers use camouflage fabrics to make disordered patterns in clothing. But camouflage pattern clothing is in use for symbolic significance like military or armed forces rather than fashion.

Frequently Asked Questions on Camouflage

Q.1: What is motion dazzle?

Answer: Camouflaging patterns are useful when the objects or animals are still in their position. The camouflaging becomes ineffective when the movements incur in these objects or animals. This problem can be solved by using the motion dazzle method. A bold pattern of contrasting stripes can give the chance to escape animals from their predators. Due to these patterns, predators are not able to estimate the speed, direction and position of the prey accurately.

Q.2: Write a short note on counter-illumination.

Answer: Counter-illumination, an active camouflage, is a different kind of camouflage pattern. In this, the animal’s body or vehicle produces light to match a background that is brighter than it. For example, the midwater squids produce lights scattered all over its underside and due to this, it does not look like a black object moving when seen from below. The illumination producing organs in such animals are termed photophores. This illumination can be used to distract predators, attract to reproduce, detect prey or just for signalling.

Q.3: How to make camouflage effective?

Answer: The major objective of the camouflage pattern is to make the object hide or conceal against the surrounding environment. This capacity exists in some animals and they are perfect in doing so. In the case of humans, they need to learn that a single type of camouflage pattern does not work in all terrains. As per the colour tones as well as the contrast of the local terrain, camouflage patterns are made and used. Therefore military and army personnel observe the local terrain and then make the camouflage patterns to conceal themselves.

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