camouflage

1. The method or result of concealing personnel or equipment from an enemy by making them appear to be part of the natural surroundings.
2. Concealment by disguise or protective coloring.
3. Fabric or a garment dyed in splotches of green, brown, tan, and black so as to make the wearer indistinguishable from the surrounding environment.

1. To conceal by the use of disguise or by protective coloring or garments that blend in with the surrounding environment.
2. To conceal, usually through misrepresentation or other artifice: camouflaged their hatred with professions of friendship. See synonyms at disguise.

[French, from camoufler, to disguise, alteration (influenced by camouflet, snub, smoke blown in one's face) of Italian camuffare.]

For more information on camouflage, visit Britannica.com.

verb

To change or modify so as to prevent recognition of the true identity or character of: disguise, dissemble, dissimulate, mask, masquerade. See show/hide.

Definition: disguise
Antonyms: display, exhibit

v

Definition: disguise, cover
Antonyms: display, exhibit, reveal, show, uncover

Camouflage (from Fr.: camoufler, to veil). In Russian the word is maskirovka, meaning ‘to deceive’, and that is the name of the game. Considering how thoroughly it permeates the natural world, it is astonishing how long it took armies to get serious about camouflage. Whether predator or prey, or both as is usually the case, animals have evolved a bewildering range of survival strategies in which shape and colour are used to conceal, to warn, and to pretend to be something they are not. Had warfare developed simply from hunting, camouflage might have developed along with it, but with the exception of green uniforms among British rifle regiments in North America and German Jägers, the trend was in the opposite direction, with uniforms reaching a peak of gorgeousness shortly before breech-loading rifles doomed the practice.

To understand why some armies persisted in making themselves conspicuous even well into WW I, one must look to the other natural use of extravagant shapes and colouring, sexual advertising, which is an almost exclusively male preserve. This becomes even more intriguing when considered in combination with, for example, the mainly symbolic bayonet. But that is to digress. Camouflage as traditionally understood is used to veil and to deceive, and the fathers of modern military camouflage were zoologists and illustrators, Abbott Thayer in the USA and John Kerr in Britain. They applied the lessons of animal protective colouring to warfare, the former going so far as to argue that all animal markings, no matter how conspicuous, served the purpose of concealment.

Serendipitously during the period 1900-14, artists identifying themselves as Cubists and Vorticists were moving away from representational illustration towards abstraction, stressing structural form, shape, and colour as a means of interpreting an object. Their philosophy found expression in the ‘dazzle’ painting of ships, developed by Thayer and Kerr during WW I. US and British warships began to make a bizarre appearance with angular patterns in primary colours painted on their hulls. Kerr conceived the idea of painting a ship with a false perspective, to distort the vessel's true course and speed, making it hard for a prowling U-boat to aim a torpedo correctly. Other schemes incorporated fake bow waves or raised waterlines, designed to complicate calculation of a ship's speed or range. There is little evidence that it worked. Nonetheless, in both countries, artists were recruited to aid this work, and Cubists and Vorticists found larger canvases on which to paint. One leading Vorticist, Edward Wadsworth, supervised the camouflage of over two thousand warships, and his post-war canvases celebrated his dazzling ships. The trend continued in WW II when the naturalist and artist Sir Peter Scott devised several dazzle colour schemes for the Royal Navy.

Personal camouflage began to be widespread with the adoption of khaki by the British army in India, becoming standard after the First Boer War had underlined the disadvantage of a scarlet jacket when fighting men who could shoot. The Germans replaced Prussian blue with field grey (grey-green) and the Russians replaced dark green with a greyish brown. French troops continued to wear the red trousers and blue coats, their cuirassiers still wearing the shining breastplates of a century earlier. Casualty lists were an excellent argument for change, but it was the advent of aerial reconnaissance that led to ever-wider applications of the art of camouflage.

The first section de camouflage in military history was established in 1915 by the French, under the command of a painter, and thereafter comparable units were used by all the combatants. These advised on how to break up the shape of objects and experimented with colour schemes. This coincided with several new arrivals on the battlefield, including tanks, which required deception and concealment to a high degree. By 1918, the use of military camouflage was axiomatic, and in 1939 war artists were again mobilized to advise on concealment. The colouring of aircraft cycled rapidly through the concealment-advertising-concealment process, the German fighter squadron of WW I taking personal adornment to a browbeating extreme. During WW II the pattern of irregular earth tones above and light blue-grey underneath became a standard, shelved by the USAAF once air superiority was achieved in late 1944, and its aircraft flew in bare polished metal, saving time in the manufacturing process and operational weight.

Apart from the wearing of white by arctic and mountain troops, which began much earlier, smocks using disruptive patterns worn over normal battledress were first used by SS troops invading the USSR in 1941. The British Denison smock, worn by paratroopers was similar. The Germans developed a wide range of camouflage suits designed for a variety of specific environments, but whether these were for concealment or as an expression of élite troops' desire to set themselves apart is open to debate. The US army attempted to introduce a camouflage suit in Normandy, but it was withdrawn because Allied troops had become used to the fact that only the Germans wore camouflage.

Nearly every army in the world now has a distinctive camouflage uniform of its own, which is worn as often in barracks as in the field. Some designs are durable—Germany has readopted the basic pattern it used in the closing months of WW II—while most are distinctive, and it is now possible to recognize the nationality of a soldier by his camouflage. The counter-indicated use of camouflage smocks in the streets of Northern Ireland is merely the latest example of the conflict between the soldier's desire not to attract hostile attention and his wish to set himself apart as the epitome of manhood. In this respect skin camouflage also serves a dual function, both as warpaint and as a response to the practical need to disrupt tell-tale faces and hands with specialist camouflage cream made by cosmetics manufacturers.

The advent of radar, infra-red (IR), and satellite detection has lessened the importance of merely visual camouflage, while heightening the need to extend deception into the non-visual spectrum by heat dispersion and concealment and the use of countermeasures such as electronic jamming, spoofing, and flares to attract IR guided missiles. The latter category had its first military application in the bold noise-makers ejected by U-boats when the pinging of sonar indicated that those on the surface were coming too close. Stealth technology—low observability in whatever spectrum—may be considered the culmination of the art.

Bibliography

• Cruickshank, Charles, Deception in WW II (Oxford, 1979).
• Reit, Seymour, Masquerade (London, 1979)

— Peter Caddick-Adams

ˈkæmǝܖfläʒ; -ܖfläj n. 1. the disguising of military personnel, equipment, and installations by painting or covering them to make them blend in with their surroundings: camouflage nets.

2. the clothing or materials used for such a purpose: figures dressed in army camouflage.

hide or disguise the presence of (a person, animal, or object) by means of camouflage: the van was camouflaged with netting and branches from trees.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

(DOD, NATO) The use of natural or artificial material on personnel, objects, or tactical positions with the aim of confusing, misleading, or evading the enemy.

A flounder blending in with the rocks on the sea floor.

A camouflaged sniper, an example of military camouflage

This article is about protective coloration. For other uses, see Camouflage (disambiguation).

Camouflage is a method of crypsis – avoidance of observation – that allows an otherwise visible organism or object to remain indiscernible from the surrounding environment through deception. Examples include a tiger's stripes and the battledress of a modern soldier. The theory of camouflage covers the various strategies which are used to achieve this effect.

Contents 1 Cryptic coloration in nature 1.1 Gallery 2 Military camouflage 2.1 Gallery 3 Other human uses of cryptic coloration 4 See also 5 References 5.1 Notes 5.2 Bibliography 6 External links

Cryptic coloration in nature

Further information: Crypsis and Antipredator adaptation

Cryptic coloration is the most common form of camouflage, found to some extent in the majority of species. The simplest way is for an animal to be of a color similar to its surroundings. Examples include the "earth tones" of deer, squirrels, or moles (to match trees or dirt), or the combination of blue skin and white underbelly of sharks via countershading (which makes them difficult to detect from both above and below). More complex patterns can be seen in animals such as flounder, moths, and frogs, among many others.

The type of camouflage a species will develop depends on several factors:

• The environment in which it lives. This is usually the most important factor.
• The physiology and behavior of an animal. Animals with fur need camouflage different from those with feathers or scales. Likewise, animals who live in groups use different camouflage techniques than those that are solitary.
• If the animal is preyed upon then the behavior or characteristics of its predator can influence how the camouflage develops. If the predator has achromatic vision, for example, then the animal will not need to match the color of its surroundings.

Animals produce colors in two ways:

• Biochromes: natural microscopic pigments that absorb certain wavelengths of light and reflect others, creating a visible color that is targeted towards its primary predator.
• Microscopic physical structures, which act like prisms to reflect and scatter light to produce a color that is different from the skin, such as the translucent fur of the Polar Bear, which actually has black skin.

Protective mimicry among insects

Cryptic coloration can change as well. This can be due to just a changing of the seasons, or it can be in response to more rapid environmental changes. For example, the Arctic fox has a white coat in winter, and a brown coat in summer. Mammals and birds require a new fur coat and new set of feathers respectively, but some animals, such as cuttlefish, have deeper-level pigment cells, called chromatophores, that they can control. Other animals such as certain fish species or the nudibranch can actually change their skin coloration by changing their diet. However, the most well-known creature that changes color, the chameleon, usually does not do so for camouflage purposes, but instead to express its mood.

Beyond colors, skin patterns are often helpful in cryptic coloration as well. The Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet illusion describes visual perception as occurring through contrasts of outlines. One recognizes a dog, for example, not by its color as much as by its shape. Often what matters most for good cryptic coloration is to break up the outline of a creature's body. This can be seen in common domestic pets such as tabby cats, but striping overall in other animals such as tigers and zebras help them blend into their environment, the jungle and the grasslands respectively. The latter two provide an interesting example, as one's initial impression might be that their coloration does not match their surroundings at all, but tigers' prey are usually color blind to a certain extent such that they cannot tell the difference between orange and green, and zebras' main predators, lions, are color blind. In the case of zebras, the stripes also blend together so that a herd of zebras looks like one large mass, making it difficult for a lion to pick out any individual zebra. This same concept is used by many striped fish species as well. Among birds, the white "chinstraps" of Canada geese make a flock in tall grass appear more like sticks and less like birds' heads.

In nature, there is a strong evolutionary pressure for animals to blend into their environment or conceal their shape; for prey animals to avoid predators and for predators to be able to sneak up on prey. Natural camouflage is one method that animals use to meet these. There are a number of methods of doing so. One is for the animal to blend in with its surroundings, while another is for the animal to disguise itself as something uninteresting or something dangerous.

There is a permanent co-evolution of the sensory abilities of animals for whom it is beneficial to be able to detect the camouflaged animal, and the cryptic characteristics of the concealing species. Different aspects of crypsis and sensory abilities may be more or less pronounced in given predator-prey pairs of species.

Some cryptic animals also simulate natural movement, e.g., of a leaf in the wind. This is called procryptic behaviour or habit. Other animals attach or attract natural materials to their body for concealment.

A few animals have chromatic response, changing color in changing environments, either seasonally (ermine, snowshoe hare) or far more rapidly with chromatophores in their integument (the cephalopod family).

Some animals, notably in aquatic environments, also take steps to camouflage the odours they create that may attract predators.^{[citation needed]}

Some herd animals adopt a similar pattern to make it difficult to distinguish a single animal. Examples include stripes on zebras and the reflective scales on fish.

Gallery

Hoplophrys oatesii crab hiding in a soft coral‎ from East Timor.	An arctic hare's white coloration camouflages it in the snow	Camouflage allows predator to capture prey	The Egyptian Nightjar nests in the open sand with only its coloration to protect it
Scorpion fish resting beside a rope	A mackerel tabby cat blending with its (autumn) environment	Crab with red algae all over its body at Moss Beach, California	Countershaded Ibex are almost invisible in the Israeli desert.
A Bobcat blends with its winter surroundings, at Almaden Quicksilver County Park

Military camouflage

Soldiers in camouflage during a training mission

Main article: Military camouflage

Camouflage was not in wide use in early western civilization based warfare. Eighteenth and 19th century armies tended to use bright colors and bold, impressive designs. These were intended to daunt the enemy, attract recruits, foster unit cohesion, or allow easier identification of units in the fog of war common to the battlefield before the invention of smokeless gun powder.

Jäger riflemen in the 18th century were the first to adopt colors in relatively drab shades of green or grey. Major armies retained their bright colors until convinced otherwise. In 1857, the British in India were forced by casualties to dye their white hot weather uniforms to neutral tones, initially a muddy tan called khaki (from the Urdu word for 'dust'). This was only a temporary measure and the Army reverted to red or white uniforms until khaki became standard for Indian service in the 1880s. It was not until after the Second Boer War that, in 1902, the "home service" (i.e. non-tropical) field uniforms of the entire British army were standardised using a darker shade of khaki serge. Other armies, such as those of the United States, Russia, Italy, and Germany followed suit either with khaki, grey, blue-grey or other colors more suitable for their environments.

Camouflage netting, natural materials, disruptive color patterns, and paint with special infrared, thermal, and radar qualities have also been used on military vehicles, ships, aircraft, installations and buildings. A striking example of this is the dazzle camouflage used on ships during WW I.

Ghillie suits are worn by snipers and their spotters to take camouflage to a higher level, combining not just colors, but twigs, leaves and other foliage to break up the human silhouette and to replace the printed patterns of their uniform with colors and materials from their immediate environment so as to remain inconspicuous even while being directly observed through binoculars or from above by aircraft.

Gallery

British soldier during Operation Desert Shield	APC painted with a camouflaging pattern	A naval ship camouflaged to reduce visibility at sea	A patrol in winter camouflage during the Battle of the Bulge
A camouflaged helicopter	German flecktarn camouflage pattern	A soldier applies camouflaging face paint	A modern example of desert camouflage

Other human uses of cryptic coloration

A modern deer hunter

Hunters often use camouflage clothing that is visually tailored to the game they are hunting. The most striking example of this is the blaze orange camouflage, which makes the hunter obvious to humans but relies on the fact that most large game animals, such as deer, are dichromats, and perceive the orange as a dull color. On the other hand, ultraviolet dyes, commonly used in laundry detergents to make the laundered items appear brighter, are visible to many game animals; using these will cause what appears to the human eye to be cryptically colored clothing to stand out against the background, when viewed by an animal with ultraviolet-sensitive eyes.^[1]

There are several different types of hunting camouflage. The use of each one is dependent upon the area in which the hunter is going to hunt. It can range in appearance from a mossy oak pattern to a sage brush pattern for hunters of large mammals. Waterfowl hunters can have camouflage that resembles swamp reeds.

See also

• Active camouflage
• Animal coloration
• Aposematism
• Everett Warner
• Motion camouflage

References

Notes

1. ^ "How Game Animals See and Smell". http://www.atsko.com/articles/hunting/how-game-animals-see-smell.html. 

Bibliography

• Roy R. Behrens - Art and Camouflage: An Annotated Bibliography
• Behrens, Roy R. (2009). CAMOUPEDIA: A Compendium of Research on Art, Architecture and Camouflage. Bobolink Books. ISBN 978-0-9713244-6-6. 
• Behrens, Roy R. (2009), "Camouflage" in E. Bruce Goldstein, ed., Encyclopedia of Perception. Sage Publications, pp. 233-236. ISBN 978-1-4129408-1-8.
• Behrens, Roy R. (2002). FALSE COLORS: Art, Design and Modern Camouflage. Bobolink Books. ISBN 0-9713244-0-9. 
• Goodden, Henrietta (2007). Camouflage and Art: Design for Deception in World War 2. Unicorn Press. ISBN 978-0-906290-87-3. 
• Harris, Tom. "How Animal Camouflage Works". How Stuff Works. http://science.howstuffworks.com/animal-camouflage2.htm. Retrieved 2006-11-13. 
• "How do a zebra's stripes act as camouflage?". How Stuff Works. http://science.howstuffworks.com/question454.htm. Retrieved 2006-11-13. 
• Newark, Tim (2007). Camouflage. Thames and Hudson, and Imperial War Museum. ISBN 978-0-500-51347-7. 
• Jon Latimer, Deception in War, London: John Murray, 2001.
• Traver, Kacey. Life under the Sea.' Copyright 2008.
• Everett L. Warner, “The Science of Marine Camouflage Design” in Transactions of the Illuminating Engineering Society 14 (5) 1919, pp. 215-219.
• Everett L. Warner, “Fooling the Iron Fish: The Inside Story of Marine Camouflage” in Everybody’s Magazine (November 1919), pp. 102-109.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Camouflage

• Artists and Other Contributors to Camouflage in the 20th Century
• Roy R. Behrens, "The Thinking Eye: a Chronology of Camouflage" 2006
• "An informal study into camouflage"

v • d • e Evolutionary ecology Patterns of evolution Convergent evolution · Parallel evolution · Divergent evolution Signals Antipredator adaptation · Aposematism · Mimicry · Crypsis (Countershading) · Unkenreflex

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - camouflage, sløring
v. tr. - sløre
v. intr. - camouflere, sløre

Nederlands (Dutch)
camoufleren, schutkleur, camouflage

Français (French)
n. - (Mil, fig) camouflage
v. tr. - camoufler, (fig) dissimuler
v. intr. - camoufler, (fig) dissimuler

Deutsch (German)
n. - Tarnung, Tarnfärbung
v. - tarnen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - παραλλαγή, καμουφλάρισμα
v. - παραλλάσσω, καμουφλάρω

Italiano (Italian)
mimetizzare, colore mimetico, camuffamento, travestimento

Português (Portuguese)
n. - camuflagem (f)
v. - camuflar, disfarçar

Русский (Russian)
маскировать, маскировка

Español (Spanish)
n. - pintura de camuflaje, disfraz
v. tr. - camuflar, disfrazar
v. intr. - camuflarse, disfrazarse

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kamouflage, förklädnad
v. - kamouflera, förkläda

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
伪装, 幌子, 隐瞒, 掩蔽, 掩饰, 伪装起来, 隐蔽起来

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 偽裝, 幌子, 隱瞞
v. tr. - 偽裝, 掩蔽, 掩飾
v. intr. - 偽裝起來, 隱蔽起來

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 변장
v. tr. - 위장하다, 속이다
v. intr. - 위장하다, 속이다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 偽装, 迷彩, 変装
v. - カムフラージュする, ごまかす

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) تمويه, تعميه, خداع (فعل) يموه, يعمي, يخدع‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮הסוואה‬
v. tr. - ‮הסווה‬
v. intr. - ‮הסתווה‬

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