126-477: Camo or CAMO may also refer to: Camouflage , particularly military camouflage Camo, Cuneo , a frazione of the province of Cuneo in north-west Italy Camo, a chameleon in the 2006 Disney animated film The Wild "Camo", a single by BoA featured on the album One Shot, Two Shot Acronyms [ edit ] CAMO ([Club Aquatique de Montreal] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |link= ( help ) ),
252-449: A Union-Castle Liner disappear from convoy during an autumn sunset because of the company's unusual lavender-mauve-gray hull color. Mountbatten reasoned the color would be effective camouflage during dawn and dusk periods, and devised a similar shade by mixing medium gray with a small amount of venetian red. Its effectiveness was much disputed; but it was applied to other destroyers, a few cruisers, and numerous small warships which maintained
378-546: A littoral combat ship , is however said to be the first U.S. Navy ship to have camouflage reminiscent of that used in the World Wars. In 2023, Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy applied camouflage to their Admiral Grigorovich Class frigate Admiral Essen . By making the ship appear smaller than it actually was, they were hoping to confuse remote operators of Ukrainian uncrewed surface vessels (USV) into thinking
504-436: A background that is brighter than an animal's body or military vehicle; it is a form of active camouflage. It is notably used by some species of squid , such as the firefly squid and the midwater squid . The latter has light-producing organs ( photophores ) scattered all over its underside; these create a sparkling glow that prevents the animal from appearing as a dark shape when seen from below. Counterillumination camouflage
630-795: A camouflage scheme applied to HMS Broke in June 1940 at the suggestion of the naturalist Peter Scott , who was serving aboard that ship. Broke was painted white with large polygonal patches of light gray, light sea blue and light sea green. Broke achieved some notoriety in a collision where the captain of the other ship claimed to have been unable to see Broke . Escort captains observing Broke experimented with similar schemes including polygons of dark gray or dark blue for increased disruptive contrast, while others tried painting their ships entirely white to emphasize concealment. The Admiralty omitted light gray from Peter Scott's scheme. White with large polygonal patches of light sea blue and light sea green
756-429: A clear evolutionary advantage in plants: they would tend to escape from being eaten by herbivores . Another possibility is that some plants have leaves differently coloured on upper and lower surfaces or on parts such as veins and stalks to make green-camouflaged insects conspicuous, and thus benefit the plants by favouring the removal of herbivores by carnivores. These hypotheses are testable. Some animals, such as
882-403: A combination of the two. Most forms of camouflage are ineffective when the camouflaged animal or object moves, because the motion is easily seen by the observing predator, prey or enemy. However, insects such as hoverflies and dragonflies use motion camouflage : the hoverflies to approach possible mates, and the dragonflies to approach rivals when defending territories. Motion camouflage
1008-466: A dark gray hull, black waterline and, away from air support while out raiding in 1941, dark gray turret tops. Larger ships often had false bows and sterns painted in a different shade from the rest of the hull to create the impression of the ship being at greater range from the observer. German decks were a very dark gray. Smaller ships operating in the North Sea or Baltic Sea were painted white or
1134-475: A darkened ship against the slightly brighter night sky, was trialled by the Royal Canadian Navy in diffused lighting camouflage . Ships were sometimes camouflaged in classical times. Mediterranean pirate ships were sometimes painted blue-gray for concealment. Vegetius records that Julius Caesar 's scout ships were painted bluish-green when gathering intelligence along the coast of Britain during
1260-442: A fish can be seen by a factor of 6 compared to a fish with a nominal 2% reflectance. Species with this adaptation are widely dispersed in various orders of the phylogenetic tree of bony fishes ( Actinopterygii ), implying that natural selection has driven the convergent evolution of ultra-blackness camouflage independently many times. In mimesis (also called masquerade ), the camouflaged object looks like something else which
1386-475: A high contrast pattern that could be disruptive coloration, the adults are very conspicuous when in the open. Some authors have argued that adult giraffes are cryptic, since when standing among trees and bushes they are hard to see at even a few metres' distance. However, adult giraffes move about to gain the best view of an approaching predator, relying on their size and ability to defend themselves, even from lions, rather than on camouflage. A different explanation
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#17327803151951512-519: A mirror oriented vertically makes animals such as fish invisible from the side. Most fish in the upper ocean such as sardine and herring are camouflaged by silvering. The marine hatchetfish is extremely flattened laterally, leaving the body just millimetres thick, and the body is so silvery as to resemble aluminium foil . The mirrors consist of microscopic structures similar to those used to provide structural coloration : stacks of between 5 and 10 crystals of guanine spaced about 1 ⁄ 4 of
1638-550: A mixture of soot to help them hide while passing through the San Bernardino Strait at night in the October 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf . Japanese ships largely retained their pre-war dark gray paint scheme, although some major units like aircraft carriers changed to a dark sea green. Some aircraft carriers had their flight decks painted in a dazzle camouflage, but this seems to have been ineffective. By 1945, with
1764-404: A particularly black skin which reflected only 0.044% of 480 nm wavelength light. The ultra-blackness is achieved with a thin but continuous layer of particles in the dermis , melanosomes . These particles both absorb most of the light, and are sized and shaped so as to scatter rather than reflect most of the rest. Modelling suggests that this camouflage should reduce the distance at which such
1890-411: A period of about 8000 years the single agouti gene developed 9 mutations that each made expression of yellow fur stronger under natural selection, and largely eliminated melanin-coding black fur coloration. On the other hand, all black domesticated cats have deletions of the agouti gene that prevent its expression, meaning no yellow or red color is produced. The evolution, history and widespread scope of
2016-502: A predator blends in with the background, enabling it to approach prey). His experiments showed that swallow-tailed moth pupae were camouflaged to match the backgrounds on which they were reared as larvae . Poulton's "general protective resemblance" was at that time considered to be the main method of camouflage, as when Frank Evers Beddard wrote in 1892 that "tree-frequenting animals are often green in colour. Among vertebrates numerous species of parrots , iguanas , tree-frogs , and
2142-409: A reason, such as to lure prey. For example, the nematocysts (stinging cells) of the transparent siphonophore Agalma okenii resemble small copepods . Examples of transparent marine animals include a wide variety of larvae , including radiata (coelenterates), siphonophores, salps (floating tunicates ), gastropod molluscs , polychaete worms, many shrimplike crustaceans , and fish; whereas
2268-693: A reproductive advantage, enabling them to leave more offspring, on average, than other members of the same species . In his Origin of Species , Darwin wrote: When we see leaf-eating insects green, and bark-feeders mottled-grey; the alpine ptarmigan white in winter, the red-grouse the colour of heather , and the black-grouse that of peaty earth, we must believe that these tints are of service to these birds and insects in preserving them from danger. Grouse, if not destroyed at some period of their lives, would increase in countless numbers; they are known to suffer largely from birds of prey ; and hawks are guided by eyesight to their prey, so much so, that on parts of
2394-550: A ship is painted in one or more colors in order to obscure or confuse an enemy's visual observation. Several types of marine camouflage have been used or prototyped: blending or crypsis , in which a paint scheme attempts to hide a ship from view; deception, in which a ship is made to look smaller or, as with the Q-ships , to mimic merchantmen; and dazzle , a chaotic paint scheme which tries to confuse any estimate of distance, direction, or heading. Counterillumination , to hide
2520-667: A significant increase in the use of ship camouflage. Patterned ship camouflage was pioneered in Britain. Early in the First World War, the zoologist John Graham Kerr advised Winston Churchill to use disruptive camouflage to break up ships' outlines, and countershading to make them appear less solid, following the American artist Abbott Handerson Thayer 's beliefs. Kerr was not an effective political campaigner, and his ideas were abandoned on Churchill's departure from
2646-703: A similar scheme of contrasting stone-colored polygons. When concern arose about German aerial reconnaissance of Scapa Flow , some Home Fleet ships were painted with disruptive Flotta schemes of dark brown, light gray, and light green polygons from April to August 1940 for concealment and identity confusion in port. Most Home Fleet ships had been repainted medium gray by December 1940. The Royal Navy painted Mediterranean submarines dark blue in 1940 to reduce submerged visibility to aircraft. Captain Louis Mountbatten 's 5th Flotilla of K-class destroyers were painted Mountbatten pink in 1940. Mountbatten observed
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#17327803151952772-595: A similar shade of blue. Sailors were ordered to wear dungarees rather than white uniforms when topside. The Thayer system was white with large polygonal patches of light sea blue (called Thayer Blue). This measure was most useful in Arctic latitudes with extended twilight and frequent fog and cloud cover. Purity of color was important for full realization of the Purkinje effect where some colors appear lighter and some appear darker at low levels of illumination. Darkening
2898-505: A small elastic sac, which can be stretched or allowed to relax under the control of the brain to vary its opacity. By controlling chromatophores of different colours, cephalopods can rapidly change their skin patterns and colours. On a longer timescale, animals like the Arctic hare , Arctic fox , stoat , and rock ptarmigan have snow camouflage , changing their coat colour (by moulting and growing new fur or feathers) from brown or grey in
3024-416: A species of nudibranch that feeds on stony coral , utilizes specific cryptic patterning in reef ecosystems. The nudibranch syphons pigments from the consumed coral into the epidermis, adopting the same shade as the consumed coral. This allows the nudibranch to change colour (mostly between black and orange) depending on the coral system that it inhabits. However, P. melanocrachia can only feed and lay eggs on
3150-617: A swim club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Camo . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Camo&oldid=1170198288 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Lang and lang-xx template errors Short description
3276-624: A very pale gray to blend in with daytime mist and nighttime phosphorescent organisms . As in the First World War, the Germans again employed disguised commerce raiders, Hilfskreuzer such as Atlantis , Thor and Kormoran . These ships were able to modify their appearance to throw off the searching Allied cruisers. In the diffused lighting camouflage project, the Royal Canadian Navy experimented with variable counter-illumination camouflage to match horizon light levels and minimize ships' silhouettes during prolonged arctic twilight. During
3402-409: A wavelength apart to interfere constructively and achieve nearly 100 per cent reflection. In the deep waters that the hatchetfish lives in, only blue light with a wavelength of 500 nanometres percolates down and needs to be reflected, so mirrors 125 nanometres apart provide good camouflage. In fish such as the herring which live in shallower water, the mirrors must reflect a mixture of wavelengths, and
3528-452: Is acellular and highly transparent. This conveniently makes them buoyant , but it also makes them large for their muscle mass, so they cannot swim fast, making this form of camouflage a costly trade-off with mobility. Gelatinous planktonic animals are between 50 and 90 percent transparent. A transparency of 50 percent is enough to make an animal invisible to a predator such as cod at a depth of 650 metres (2,130 ft); better transparency
3654-475: Is achieved by moving so as to stay on a straight line between the target and a fixed point in the landscape; the pursuer thus appears not to move, but only to loom larger in the target's field of vision. Some insects sway while moving to appear to be blown back and forth by the breeze. The same method can be used for military purposes, for example by missiles to minimise their risk of detection by an enemy. However, missile engineers, and animals such as bats, use
3780-433: Is an important component of camouflage in all environments. For instance, tree-dwelling parakeets are mainly green; woodcocks of the forest floor are brown and speckled; reedbed bitterns are streaked brown and buff; in each case the animal's coloration matches the hues of its habitat. Similarly, desert animals are almost all desert coloured in tones of sand, buff, ochre, and brownish grey, whether they are mammals like
3906-436: Is argued that these juvenile giraffes must be very well camouflaged; this is supported by coat markings being strongly inherited . The possibility of camouflage in plants was little studied until the late 20th century. Leaf variegation with white spots may serve as camouflage in forest understory plants, where there is a dappled background; leaf mottling is correlated with closed habitats. Disruptive camouflage would have
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4032-418: Is common in military usage, both for uniforms and for military vehicles. Disruptive patterning, however, does not always achieve crypsis on its own, as an animal or a military target may be given away by factors like shape, shine, and shadow. The presence of bold skin markings does not in itself prove that an animal relies on camouflage, as that depends on its behaviour. For example, although giraffes have
4158-405: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard 's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier , and
4284-435: Is fossil evidence of camouflaged insects going back over 100 million years, for example lacewings larvae that stick debris all over their bodies much as their modern descendants do, hiding them from their prey. Dinosaurs appear to have been camouflaged, as a 120 million year old fossil of a Psittacosaurus has been preserved with countershading . Camouflage does not have a single genetic origin. However, studying
4410-403: Is implied by young giraffes being far more vulnerable to predation than adults. More than half of all giraffe calves die within a year, and giraffe mothers hide their newly born calves, which spend much of the time lying down in cover while their mothers are away feeding. The mothers return once a day to feed their calves with milk. Since the presence of a mother nearby does not affect survival, it
4536-525: Is less often used for military camouflage, despite Second World War experiments that showed its effectiveness. English zoologist Hugh Cott encouraged the use of methods including countershading, but despite his authority on the subject, failed to persuade the British authorities. Soldiers often wrongly viewed camouflage netting as a kind of invisibility cloak, and they had to be taught to look at camouflage practically, from an enemy observer's viewpoint. At
4662-434: Is mediated by a type of chromatophore known as melanophores that contain dark pigment. A melanophore is star-shaped; it contains many small pigmented organelles which can be dispersed throughout the cell, or aggregated near its centre. When the pigmented organelles are dispersed, the cell makes a patch of the animal's skin appear dark; when they are aggregated, most of the cell, and the animal's skin, appears light. In frogs,
4788-540: Is not every reason to believe it the very best conceivable device for the concealment of its wearer", and using paintings such as Peacock in the Woods (1907) to reinforce his argument. Thayer was roundly mocked for these views by critics including Teddy Roosevelt . The English zoologist Hugh Cott 's 1940 book Adaptive Coloration in Animals corrected Thayer's errors, sometimes sharply: "Thus we find Thayer straining
4914-436: Is of no special interest to the observer. Mimesis is common in prey animals, for example when a peppered moth caterpillar mimics a twig, or a grasshopper mimics a dry leaf. It is also found in nest structures; some eusocial wasps, such as Leipomeles dorsata , build a nest envelope in patterns that mimic the leaves surrounding the nest. Ship camouflage Ship camouflage is a form of military deception in which
5040-463: Is required for invisibility in shallower water, where the light is brighter and predators can see better. For example, a cod can see prey that are 98 percent transparent in optimal lighting in shallow water. Therefore, sufficient transparency for camouflage is more easily achieved in deeper waters. Some tissues such as muscles can be made transparent, provided either they are very thin or organised as regular layers or fibrils that are small compared to
5166-483: Is the likely function of the bioluminescence of many marine organisms, though light is also produced to attract or to detect prey and for signalling. Counterillumination has rarely been used for military purposes. " Diffused lighting camouflage " was trialled by Canada's National Research Council during the Second World War. It involved projecting light on to the sides of ships to match the faint glow of
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5292-428: Is their mutual resemblance." He also explained the coloration of sea fish such as the mackerel : "Among pelagic fish it is common to find the upper surface dark-coloured and the lower surface white, so that the animal is inconspicuous when seen either from above or below." The artist Abbott Handerson Thayer formulated what is sometimes called Thayer's Law, the principle of countershading . However, he overstated
5418-474: Is thought to have originated through transposition from symbiotic Aliivibrio fischeri bacteria, which provide bioluminescence to its hosts. While not all cephalopods use active camouflage , ancient cephalopods may have inherited the gene horizontally from symbiotic A. fischeri , with divergence occurred through subsequent gene duplication (such as in the case of Sepia officinalis ) or gene loss (as with cephalopods with no active camouflage capabilities). This
5544-640: Is unique as an instance of camouflage arising as an instance of horizontal gene transfer from an endosymbiont . However, other methods of horizontal gene transfer are common in the evolution of camouflage strategies in other lineages. Peppered moths and walking stick insects both have camouflage-related genes that stem from transposition events. The Agouti genes are orthologous genes involved in camouflage across many lineages. They produce yellow and red coloration ( phaeomelanin ), and work in competition with other genes that produce black (melanin) and brown (eumelanin) colours. In eastern deer mice , over
5670-513: The Admiralty , while his postwar legal action to claim credit for ship camouflage failed. His successor, the marine artist Norman Wilkinson , successfully promoted the idea that Kerr's camouflage sought invisibility rather than image disruption. Under Wilkinson, the Admiralty researched and issued a large number of "razzle-dazzle" designs, which became known simply as " dazzle ", to counter
5796-628: The Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway , ships painted completely blue came under attack less often than ships wearing two-color schemes. On the advice of United States aviators the blue color was darkened and used extensively in the western and southern Pacific from mid-1942 through 1945 to minimize detection and identification by enemy aircraft. Dark blue also proved effective under artificial illumination during night actions. Upper surfaces of aircraft operating from carrier decks were painted
5922-839: The Gallic Wars . Ships were sometimes painted deceptively during the Age of Sail , while both sides in the American Civil War camouflaged their ships, whether to run blockades or for night reconnaissance. Ship camouflage was used in earnest by the British Admiralty in the First World War . The marine artist Norman Wilkinson led research into dazzle camouflage, resulting in the painting of thousands of British and later American ships in dazzle patterns. He intended it not to make ships invisible, nor even to cause
6048-672: The Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas , and white in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific . Many Home Fleet ships were painted medium gray during 1939 and 1940 to decrease visibility from the peacetime dark gray. In the first year of the war British captains largely painted their ships as they saw fit. HMS Grenville is believed to have been the first ship to adopt a disruptive camouflage paint scheme in December 1939, and several G-class destroyers of her flotilla used
6174-476: The Spanish–American War when white, light gray, and medium gray paint schemes were evaluated for their ability to hide a ship as seen against the distant sky on the horizon. Artist Abbott Handerson Thayer investigated countershading color schemes to "paint out" natural shadows. The United States Navy switched from gray to white in the 1900s, and in 1907 its Great White Fleet set out to circumnavigate
6300-548: The gerbil or fennec fox , birds such as the desert lark or sandgrouse , or reptiles like the skink or horned viper . Military uniforms, too, generally resemble their backgrounds; for example khaki uniforms are a muddy or dusty colour, originally chosen for service in South Asia. Many moths show industrial melanism , including the peppered moth which has coloration that blends in with tree bark. The coloration of these insects evolved between 1860 and 1940 to match
6426-409: The green tree-snake are examples". Beddard did however briefly mention other methods, including the "alluring coloration" of the flower mantis and the possibility of a different mechanism in the orange tip butterfly . He wrote that "the scattered green spots upon the under surface of the wings might have been intended for a rough sketch of the small flowerets of the plant [an umbellifer ], so close
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#17327803151956552-401: The horned lizards of North America, have evolved elaborate measures to eliminate shadow . Their bodies are flattened, with the sides thinning to an edge; the animals habitually press their bodies to the ground; and their sides are fringed with white scales which effectively hide and disrupt any remaining areas of shadow there may be under the edge of the body. The theory that the body shape of
6678-413: The leaf-mimic katydid 's wings. A third approach, motion dazzle, confuses the observer with a conspicuous pattern, making the object visible but momentarily harder to locate. The majority of camouflage methods aim for crypsis, often through a general resemblance to the background, high contrast disruptive coloration , eliminating shadow, and countershading . In the open ocean, where there is no background,
6804-600: The British army having adopted "coats of motley hue and stripes of paint" for snipers. Cott takes the example of the larva of the blotched emerald moth, which fixes a screen of fragments of leaves to its specially hooked bristles, to argue that military camouflage uses the same method, pointing out that the "device is ... essentially the same as one widely practised during the Great War for the concealment, not of caterpillars, but of caterpillar-tractors, [gun] battery positions, observation posts and so forth." Movement catches
6930-473: The Confederates sometimes painted their ships all in mist-gray, to hide themselves in coastal fog. One Union blockade crew may have painted their rowboat and its oars white and wore white clothing for a night reconnaissance patrol up an enemy-held river. In the 1890s, German and French fighting ships were being painted gray. American interest in ship camouflage was given official funding in 1898 during
7056-663: The Continent persons are warned not to keep white pigeons, as being the most liable to destruction. Hence I can see no reason to doubt that natural selection might be most effective in giving the proper colour to each kind of grouse, and in keeping that colour, when once acquired, true and constant. The English zoologist Edward Bagnall Poulton studied animal coloration , especially camouflage. In his 1890 book The Colours of Animals , he classified different types such as "special protective resemblance" (where an animal looks like another object), or "general aggressive resemblance" (where
7182-516: The Naval Research Laboratory was established at Leamington Spa under Commander James Yunge-Bateman to test ship camouflage schemes experimentally. Painted models were floated in a large tank and examined against different backgrounds, using theater lamps to simulate varying lighting conditions. An experimental coating able to change color was tested on Royal Navy submarines. On suggestion by Professor Leslie Cromby, lead oxide
7308-462: The Royal Navy painted ships dark gray on the hull and light gray on the superstructure and turrets. USN measure 12 was a graded system with sea blue low on the hull below the first continuous deck, with ocean gray above that. The top of the masts were painted haze gray. This measure was modified with ocean gray above navy blue low on the hull below the first continuous deck (painted parallel to
7434-522: The United States to advise the U.S. Navy on ship camouflage. Dazzle schemes were used on merchant ships, naval transports, and smaller warships. Battleships were camouflaged in a variety of patterns. Some two-color paint schemes attempted to harmonize with both sea and sky near the horizon. The US Navy painted some ships dark gray with white structures above bridge level. Both the US Navy and
7560-409: The adults of most of these are opaque and pigmented, resembling the seabed or shores where they live. Adult comb jellies and jellyfish obey the rule, often being mainly transparent. Cott suggests this follows the more general rule that animals resemble their background: in a transparent medium like seawater, that means being transparent. The small Amazon River fish Microphilypnus amazonicus and
7686-483: The agouti gene shows that different organisms often rely on orthologous or even identical genes to develop a variety of camouflage strategies. While camouflage can increase an organism's fitness, it has genetic and energetic costs. There is a trade-off between detectability and mobility. Species camouflaged to fit a specific microhabitat are less likely to be detected when in that microhabitat, but must spend energy to reach, and sometimes to remain in, such areas. Outside
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#17327803151957812-438: The body outline, making it harder to precisely identify and locate. However, disruptive patterns result in higher predation. Disruptive patterns that specifically involve visible symmetry (such as in some butterflies) reduce survivability and increase predation. Some researchers argue that because wing-shape and color pattern are genetically linked, it is genetically costly to develop asymmetric wing colorations that would enhance
7938-456: The body. On these, the nymph spreads an inner layer of fine particles and an outer layer of coarser particles. The camouflage may conceal the bug from both predators and prey. Similar principles can be applied for military purposes, for instance when a sniper wears a ghillie suit designed to be further camouflaged by decoration with materials such as tufts of grass from the sniper's immediate environment. Such suits were used as early as 1916,
8064-442: The branches of host-coral, Platygyra carnosa , which limits the geographical range and efficacy in nudibranch nutritional crypsis. Furthermore, the nudibranch colour change is not immediate, and switching between coral hosts when in search for new food or shelter can be costly. The costs associated with distractive or disruptive crypsis are more complex than the costs associated with background matching. Disruptive patterns distort
8190-457: The camouflage consists of two surfaces, each with the simple function of providing concealment against a specific background, such as a bright water surface or the sky. The body of a shark or the fuselage of an aircraft is not gradated from light to dark to appear flat when seen from the side. The camouflage methods used are the matching of background colour and pattern, and disruption of outlines. Counter-illumination means producing light to match
8316-468: The case in the 1909 book Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom , arguing that "All patterns and colors whatsoever of all animals that ever preyed or are preyed on are under certain normal circumstances obliterative" (that is, cryptic camouflage), and that "Not one ' mimicry ' mark, not one ' warning color '... nor any ' sexually selected ' color, exists anywhere in the world where there
8442-403: The change is controlled relatively slowly, mainly by hormones . In fish, the change is controlled by the brain, which sends signals directly to the chromatophores, as well as producing hormones. The skins of cephalopods such as the octopus contain complex units, each consisting of a chromatophore with surrounding muscle and nerve cells. The cephalopod chromatophore has all its pigment grains in
8568-411: The changing colour of the tree trunks on which they rest, from pale and mottled to almost black in polluted areas. This is taken by zoologists as evidence that camouflage is influenced by natural selection , as well as demonstrating that it changes where necessary to resemble the local background. Disruptive patterns use strongly contrasting, non-repeating markings such as spots or stripes to break up
8694-616: The coast of Britain. The ships were painted entirely in bluish-green wax, with sails and ropes the same color. The sailors and marines were also dressed in "Venetian blue". In the Age of Sail , deception was often used by ships, and paint was applied ad hoc by ships' captains for temporary tactical advantage. A ship might be painted to look like another, it might have its cannon ports hidden by painted canvas to look harmless, or it might have additional cannon ports painted on to appear more powerful. For example, in one of his battles during 1778–1782, American privateer Jonathan Haraden hid
8820-500: The colour schemes of British or neutral shipping. For example, the Kronprinzessin Cecilie was painted to resemble the British liner Olympic , and managed to reach America, evading the British blockade in 1914. In 1915 and 1916, the Germans further made use of commerce raiders , converted freighters with hidden weapons and long range, able to slip through the British blockade and then attack shipping as far away as
8946-540: The colour-changing abilities, both for camouflage and for signalling , of cephalopods including the octopus, in his Historia animalium : The octopus ... seeks its prey by so changing its colour as to render it like the colour of the stones adjacent to it; it does so also when alarmed . Camouflage has been a topic of interest and research in zoology for well over a century. According to Charles Darwin 's 1859 theory of natural selection , features such as camouflage evolved by providing individual animals with
9072-411: The combination of behaviours and other methods of crypsis involved, young giraffes seek cover, lie down, and keep still, often for hours until their mothers return; their skin pattern blends with the pattern of the vegetation, while the chosen cover and lying position together hide the animals' shadows. The flat-tail horned lizard similarly relies on a combination of methods: it is adapted to lie flat in
9198-504: The countershaded animal nearly invisible against a suitable background. Thayer observed that "Animals are painted by Nature, darkest on those parts which tend to be most lighted by the sky's light, and vice versa ". Accordingly, the principle of countershading is sometimes called Thayer's Law . Countershading is widely used by terrestrial animals , such as gazelles and grasshoppers; marine animals, such as sharks and dolphins ; and birds, such as snipe and dunlin . Countershading
9324-502: The efficacy of disruptive cryptic patterning. Symmetry does not carry a high survival cost for butterflies and moths that their predators views from above on a homogeneous background, such as the bark of a tree. On the other hand, natural selection drives species with variable backgrounds and habitats to move symmetrical patterns away from the centre of the wing and body, disrupting their predators' symmetry recognition. Camouflage can be achieved by different methods, described below. Most of
9450-531: The end of 1942 through the end of World War II . It was worn by shore bombardment ships in the Pacific from late 1944 after the destruction of Japanese naval aviation capability at the Battle of the Philippine Sea . Similar Admiralty standard schemes were applied beginning in 1944 when it was assumed enemy forces would have radar . Ships were painted light gray overall, except for a sea blue patch low on
9576-606: The enemy to miss his shot, but to deceive him into taking up a poor firing position. In the Second World War , dazzle was revisited by the Royal Navy and the United States Navy , and applied to a limited extent by other navies. After the Second World War, radar made painted camouflage less effective, though inshore craft continue to use camouflage schemes alongside anti-radar stealth . Ship camouflage
9702-447: The experiments, one side of the test ship was faintly illuminated by projectors mounted outboard. Results were improved with the use of blue-green filters, and then with a photocell to measure the brightness of the night sky. The ship's visibility was reduced, but the technology was inconvenient and never adopted in practice. Italian ships of Mussolini's navy retained its pre-war scheme of light gray overall for its smaller ships, but
9828-419: The eye of prey animals on the lookout for predators, and of predators hunting for prey. Most methods of crypsis therefore also require suitable cryptic behaviour, such as lying down and keeping still to avoid being detected, or in the case of stalking predators such as the tiger , moving with extreme stealth, both slowly and quietly, watching its prey for any sign they are aware of its presence. As an example of
9954-400: The features of their bodies, and to match their backgrounds. For example, a caddisfly larva builds a decorated case and lives almost entirely inside it; a decorator crab covers its back with seaweed, sponges, and stones. The nymph of the predatory masked bug uses its hind legs and a ' tarsal fan' to decorate its body with sand or dust. There are two layers of bristles ( trichomes ) over
10080-738: The fish accordingly has crystal stacks with a range of different spacings. A further complication for fish with bodies that are rounded in cross-section is that the mirrors would be ineffective if laid flat on the skin, as they would fail to reflect horizontally. The overall mirror effect is achieved with many small reflectors, all oriented vertically. Silvering is found in other marine animals as well as fish. The cephalopods , including squid, octopus and cuttlefish, have multilayer mirrors made of protein rather than guanine. Some deep sea fishes have very black skin, reflecting under 0.5% of ambient light. This can prevent detection by predators or prey fish which use bioluminescence for illumination. Oneirodes had
10206-435: The fitting of anti-rangefinder baffles to the masts and yards of battleships such as HMS Emperor of India in 1917. Deceptive mimicry was also practised, with heavily armed Q-ships disguised as merchant ships. The German navy put little emphasis on camouflage. After the Battle of Jutland , German naval effort in any case went into submarine warfare . However, Germany made use of disguise, such as by painting ships in
10332-482: The genetic components and various ecological pressures that drive crypsis. Camouflage is a soft-tissue feature that is rarely preserved in the fossil record, but rare fossilised skin samples from the Cretaceous period show that some marine reptiles were countershaded. The skins, pigmented with dark-coloured eumelanin , reveal that both leatherback turtles and mosasaurs had dark backs and light bellies. There
10458-436: The genetic components of camouflage in specific organisms illuminates the various ways that crypsis can evolve among lineages. Many cephalopods have the ability to actively camouflage themselves, controlling crypsis through neural activity. For example, the genome of the common cuttlefish includes 16 copies of the reflectin gene, which grants the organism remarkable control over coloration and iridescence. The reflectin gene
10584-512: The globe with all-white hulls. The white paint proved to be unsuccessful, and after the return of the Great White Fleet, its ships were painted gray. British ships began being painted gray in 1903; lighter shades were preferred to minimize solar heating in warmer climates. In the First World War , the increasing range of naval guns, and the great fear of high-speed, long-range torpedoes used against warships and merchant ships caused
10710-545: The guns of his ship the General Pickering , to appear as if it were a slow merchant ship. Haraden allowed his ship to be approached at close range by a much faster British privateer, then he quickly pulled the painted canvas away and delivered a full broadside , capturing the enemy. In the American Civil War , camouflage paint was applied by both sides during the Union blockade of 1861–1865. Blockade runners aiding
10836-399: The horned lizards which live in open desert is adapted to minimise shadow is supported by the one species which lacks fringe scales, the roundtail horned lizard , which lives in rocky areas and resembles a rock. When this species is threatened, it makes itself look as much like a rock as possible by curving its back, emphasizing its three-dimensional shape. Some species of butterflies, such as
10962-647: The hull, either between the main gun turrets or the entire length of the hull. In 1935, the United States Navy Naval Research Laboratory began studies and tests on low-visibility camouflage for ships. Some measures were deceptive, like a false-painted bow wave to give the impression of high speed at all times. Measures making cruisers resemble destroyers were discontinued after causing station-keeping confusion among ships operating in formation. Color schemes included light gray, haze gray, ocean gray, and black. Haze gray
11088-437: The larger units mostly had dazzle camouflage of dark gray, light sea blue, light sea green and light gray. Italian foredecks had a high-visibility pattern of red and white diagonal stripes so that their own aircraft would not attack them. Japanese ships were generally not camouflaged. In special tactical situations, camouflage could be improvised, as when the battleships Yamato and Musashi had their decks blackened with
11214-423: The local environment. As there is a lack of evidence for camouflage in the fossil record, studying the evolution of camouflage strategies is very difficult. Furthermore, camouflage traits must be both adaptable (provide a fitness gain in a given environment) and heritable (in other words, the trait must undergo positive selection ). Thus, studying the evolution of camouflage strategies requires an understanding of
11340-534: The method mainly for its efficiency rather than camouflage. Animals such as chameleon , frog, flatfish such as the peacock flounder , squid, octopus and even the isopod idotea balthica actively change their skin patterns and colours using special chromatophore cells to resemble their current background, or, as in most chameleons, for signalling . However, Smith's dwarf chameleon does use active colour change for camouflage. Each chromatophore contains pigment of only one colour. In fish and frogs, colour change
11466-428: The methods help to hide against a background; but mimesis and motion dazzle protect without hiding. Methods may be applied on their own or in combination. Many mechanisms are visual, but some research has explored the use of techniques against olfactory (scent) and acoustic (sound) detection. Methods may also apply to military equipment. Some animals' colours and patterns match a particular natural background. This
11592-466: The microhabitat, the organism has a higher chance of detection. Generalized camouflage allows species to avoid predation over a wide range of habitat backgrounds, but is less effective. The development of generalized or specialized camouflage strategies is highly dependent on the biotic and abiotic composition of the surrounding environment. There are many examples of the tradeoffs between specific and general cryptic patterning. Phestilla melanocrachia ,
11718-538: The night sky, requiring awkward external platforms to support the lamps. The Canadian concept was refined in the American Yehudi lights project, and trialled in aircraft including B-24 Liberators and naval Avengers . The planes were fitted with forward-pointing lamps automatically adjusted to match the brightness of the night sky. This enabled them to approach much closer to a target – within 3,000 yards (2,700 m) – before being seen. Counterillumination
11844-514: The open desert, relying on stillness, its cryptic coloration, and concealment of its shadow to avoid being noticed by predators. In the ocean, the leafy sea dragon sways mimetically, like the seaweeds amongst which it rests, as if rippled by wind or water currents. Swaying is seen also in some insects, like Macleay's spectre stick insect, Extatosoma tiaratum . The behaviour may be motion crypsis, preventing detection, or motion masquerade, promoting misclassification (as something other than prey), or
11970-408: The outlines of an animal or military vehicle, or to conceal telltale features, especially by masking the eyes , as in the common frog . Disruptive patterns may use more than one method to defeat visual systems such as edge detection . Predators like the leopard use disruptive camouflage to help them approach prey, while potential prey use it to avoid detection by predators. Disruptive patterning
12096-401: The pattern increased course deception, but increased visibility at night and in haze. Measure 32 was a medium pattern of obtrusive polygons in navy blue or black, against background polygons of lighter grays and greens. This measure emphasized mistaken identity and course deception to complicate submarine attack. Patterns were carried across the bow, and light gray was used aft to blend with
12222-470: The pattern was unique to ships produced for the Royal Navy and was replaced by Admiralty schemes and colors during refit. The Home Fleet destroyer scheme was similar to the Western Approaches scheme but used darker shades of blue and gray on the rear third of the ship, to assist in station-keeping. British decks were usually dark gray. The Admiralty's informal approach changed when a branch of
12348-508: The polygons were too small to be differentiated at effective camouflage ranges. Simplified Admiralty light and dark disruptive schemes were promulgated in 1942 to use larger and simpler polygons with no more than four colors. Light disruptive schemes were intended for use in the higher latitudes where skies were often overcast. Dark disruptive schemes used darker colors providing more effective disruption where bright sunlight could be expected. The Admiralty Western Approaches scheme evolved from
12474-501: The principal methods of camouflage are transparencying, silveringing, and countershading, while the ability to produce light is among other things used for counter-illumination on the undersides of cephalopods such as squid . Some animals, such as chameleons and octopuses , are capable of actively changing their skin pattern and colors , whether for camouflage or for signalling. It is possible that some plants use camouflage to evade being eaten by herbivores . Military camouflage
12600-531: The remnants of the Japanese Navy seeking to hide from American air power, its battleships were painted in a variety of camouflage measures. Haruna , for example, wore olive green overall, its turrets painted light green with gray stripes, whereas Ise ' s olive dress was broken up with patches of gray, red-brown, yellow, and dark green. Soviet ships were dark gray overall, sometimes with medium gray upperworks. The French Navy used light gray before
12726-474: The same time in Australia , zoologist William John Dakin advised soldiers to copy animals' methods, using their instincts for wartime camouflage. The term countershading has a second meaning unrelated to "Thayer's Law". It is that the upper and undersides of animals such as sharks, and of some military aircraft, are different colours to match the different backgrounds when seen from above or from below. Here
12852-479: The scheme through 1944 for use in coastal waters. No Admiralty camouflage section was established until October 1940. Admiralty camouflage schemes promulgated in 1941 were not universally adopted because of difficulties with operating schedules and shortages of some paint pigments. Nearly all destroyers and larger ships wore an Admiralty disruptive camouflage scheme by late 1942; but Commonwealth captains executed official camouflage schemes with greater variation than
12978-467: The shrimps it associates with, Pseudopalaemon gouldingi , are so transparent as to be "almost invisible"; further, these species appear to select whether to be transparent or more conventionally mottled (disruptively patterned) according to the local background in the environment. Where transparency cannot be achieved, it can be imitated effectively by silvering to make an animal's body highly reflective. At medium depths at sea, light comes from above, so
13104-477: The sides of a tank. The Peltier plate panels are heated and cooled to match either the vehicle's surroundings (crypsis), or an object such as a car (mimesis), when viewed in infrared. Countershading uses graded colour to counteract the effect of self-shadowing, creating an illusion of flatness. Self-shadowing makes an animal appear darker below than on top, grading from light to dark; countershading 'paints in' tones which are darkest on top, lightest below, making
13230-537: The south Atlantic. German First World War merchant ships were rarely camouflaged, nor did they use Q-ships, as the Allied navies did not attack merchant shipping. The Allied navies of France and Italy essentially followed Admiralty camouflage practice. In 1913, American camouflage experiments included a submarine painted in a three-color pattern of broad vertical stripes designed by William Mackay , using white stripes to separate green and blue stripes. Wilkinson visited
13356-462: The speckled wood, Pararge aegeria , minimise their shadows when perched by closing the wings over their backs, aligning their bodies with the sun, and tilting to one side towards the sun, so that the shadow becomes a thin inconspicuous line rather than a broad patch. Similarly, some ground-nesting birds, including the European nightjar , select a resting position facing the sun. Eliminating shadow
13482-669: The summer to white in the winter; the Arctic fox is the only species in the dog family to do so. However, Arctic hares which live in the far north of Canada , where summer is very short, remain white year-round. The principle of varying coloration either rapidly or with the changing seasons has military applications. Active camouflage could in theory make use of both dynamic colour change and counterillumination. Simple methods such as changing uniforms and repainting vehicles for winter have been in use since World War II. In 2011, BAE Systems announced their Adaptiv infrared camouflage technology. It uses about 1,000 hexagonal panels to cover
13608-769: The target's speed, range, and heading. During and after the Second World War , a variety of camouflage schemes were used for aircraft and for ground vehicles in different theatres of war. The use of radar since the mid-20th century has largely made camouflage for fixed-wing military aircraft obsolete. Non-military use of camouflage includes making cell telephone towers less obtrusive and helping hunters to approach wary game animals. Patterns derived from military camouflage are frequently used in fashion clothing, exploiting their strong designs and sometimes their symbolism. Camouflage themes recur in modern art, and both figuratively and literally in science fiction and works of literature. In ancient Greece, Aristotle (384–322 BC) commented on
13734-470: The theory to a fantastic extreme in an endeavour to make it cover almost every type of coloration in the animal kingdom." Cott built on Thayer's discoveries, developing a comprehensive view of camouflage based on "maximum disruptive contrast", countershading and hundreds of examples. The book explained how disruptive camouflage worked, using streaks of boldly contrasting colour, paradoxically making objects less visible by breaking up their outlines. While Cott
13860-409: The threat from submarines . Models were made and painted, often by women artists, and tested in a laboratory by viewing through a periscope . After trials, in October 1917 the Admiralty ordered all its merchant ships to be painted in dazzle patterns. The purpose of dazzle camouflage was not however motion dazzle but course deception, as Wilkinson later explained: The primary object of this scheme
13986-533: The wake. This measure was based on the World War I dazzle system modified by observations in the western Pacific; and was applied to most surface ships in the Pacific during 1944 and 1945. Different patterns were devised for classes with large numbers of ships so the pattern would not identify the class of ship. Between the world wars, Royal Navy ships were painted dark gray in the Home Fleet, light gray in
14112-812: The war and under the Vichy regime. Free French ships that operated with the British adopted one of the British schemes. Those that were refitted in American shipyards were usually repainted in the American Measure 22 . After the Second World War, the universal adoption of radar made traditional camouflage generally less effective, and led to development of stealth ships , a form of radar camouflage. However, camouflage may have helped United States warships avoid hits from Vietnamese shore batteries which used optical rangefinders. Some U.S. Navy PTF boats were camouflaged experimentally in 1975 with green overall, broken up by patterns of gray and black. USS Freedom ,
14238-428: The war. The cruiser Deutschland , for instance, had a gray hull and light gray superstructure in 1934. Others had dazzle camouflage, usually in combinations of pale gray, dark gray, and sea blue. For example, the hull of the battleship Scharnhorst had a dazzle pattern of stripes on a gray background in 1940, but some of these were later painted out, and the bows forward of the main guns painted black. Scharnhorst
14364-456: The waterline rather than the main deck). This bold contrast on a horizontal line near the horizon reduced visibility to surface observers and created the illusion of greater range. This camouflage was considered most effective for gunnery engagements with surface units or shore batteries in areas where aerial observation was unlikely. It was used in the Atlantic and European coastal waters from
14490-508: The wavelength of visible light. A familiar example is the transparency of the lens of the vertebrate eye , which is made of the protein crystallin , and the vertebrate cornea which is made of the protein collagen . Other structures cannot be made transparent, notably the retinas or equivalent light-absorbing structures of eyes – they must absorb light to be able to function. The camera -type eye of vertebrates and cephalopods must be completely opaque. Finally, some structures are visible for
14616-413: Was adopted in mid-1941 for use exclusively on destroyers and smaller ships engaged in anti-submarine operations. This was an effective scheme under typical North Atlantic weather conditions of fog and overcast. Captain-class frigate were delivered painted white with a pattern of sea blue and light gray in an American Western Approaches variant. These were colors used in American camouflage measures; but
14742-460: Was applied to the hull, enabling it to become black on application of a solution of sulphite and sea water for night operation. For day sailing, a solution of hydrogen peroxide and sea water would be applied, producing sulphate and returning the hull to a white colour desirable for daytime conditions. German Kriegsmarine ships before the Second World War were either light gray overall or had dark gray hulls, and many retained this scheme during
14868-575: Was customary with American measures. Initial Admiralty disruptive camouflage schemes employed polygons of varying shades of gray, blue and green so at least two of the colors would blend with background sea or sky under different light conditions. Schemes devised for capital ships emphasized identity confusion rather than concealment. HMS Queen Elizabeth became the first ship to receive an official camouflage scheme in January 1941. As more ships received similar schemes through 1941, it became evident
14994-488: Was found to provide reasonable protection in the widest range of conditions, and became a standard US Navy paint scheme after World War II . Ocean gray also became a standard paint scheme after the war. Although black is still used for submarines, it was discontinued on destroyers after it had been determined that black ships remained more noticeable than gray ships on even the darkest nights. The US Navy painted some ships sea blue overall for concealment from aircraft. During
15120-682: Was identified as a principle of military camouflage during the Second World War . Many prey animals have conspicuous high-contrast markings which paradoxically attract the predator's gaze. These distractive markings may serve as camouflage by distracting the predator's attention from recognising the prey as a whole, for example by keeping the predator from identifying the prey's outline. Experimentally, search times for blue tits increased when artificial prey had distractive markings. Some animals actively seek to hide by decorating themselves with materials such as twigs, sand, or pieces of shell from their environment, to break up their outlines, to conceal
15246-464: Was made obsolete by radar , and neither diffused lighting camouflage nor Yehudi lights entered active service. Many marine animals that float near the surface are highly transparent , giving them almost perfect camouflage. However, transparency is difficult for bodies made of materials that have different refractive indices from seawater. Some marine animals such as jellyfish have gelatinous bodies, composed mainly of water; their thick mesogloea
15372-498: Was more systematic and balanced in his view than Thayer, and did include some experimental evidence on the effectiveness of camouflage, his 500-page textbook was, like Thayer's, mainly a natural history narrative which illustrated theories with examples. Experimental evidence that camouflage helps prey avoid being detected by predators was first provided in 2016, when ground-nesting birds ( plovers and coursers ) were shown to survive according to how well their egg contrast matched
15498-524: Was not camouflaged against air observation, her decks fore and aft bearing large black on white swastikas on a red field; her main gun turrets had red (in the Baltic) or yellow tops for air recognition. The battleship Bismarck set out to Norway in dazzle camouflage; this was painted out with gray for her final trip to the Atlantic. The cruiser Admiral Scheer wore a low-contrast pattern of irregular dark gray marks on light gray for her superstructure, with
15624-452: Was not so much to cause the enemy to miss his shot when actually in firing position, but to mislead him, when the ship was first sighted, as to the correct position to take up. ... making it a matter of difficulty for a submarine to decide on the exact course of the vessel to be attacked. Over 4000 British merchant ships and some 400 naval vessels were painted in dazzle camouflage during 1917–1918. Deceptive measures other than dazzle included
15750-426: Was occasionally used in ancient times. The 3rd century book Imagines notes that Mediterranean pirate ships were sometimes painted blue-gray for concealment. Vegetius writing in the 4th century says that "Venetian blue" (bluish-green, the same color as the sea) was used in the years 56–54 BC during the Gallic Wars , when Julius Caesar sent his speculatoria navigia (scout ships) to gather intelligence along
15876-569: Was spurred by the increasing range and accuracy of firearms in the 19th century. In particular the replacement of the inaccurate musket with the rifle made personal concealment in battle a survival skill. In the 20th century, military camouflage developed rapidly, especially during the First World War . On land, artists such as André Mare designed camouflage schemes and observation posts disguised as trees. At sea , merchant ships and troop carriers were painted in dazzle patterns that were highly visible, but designed to confuse enemy submarines as to
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