CAMOUFLAGE

Camouflage refers to how animals are able to blend into their environment. Camouflage is a
mechanism which allows the bearer to hide in plain sight by means of a pattern or process.
Biological camouflage was studied from early 1860s to 1940 and notable contributors to this
field were American Artist Thayer (1896) and English Zoologist Cott.

Camouflage is a type of visual mimicry. The major differences between mimicry and camouflage
are-

Basic types of camouflage

1. Concealing Colouration: Most of the forest habitat animals are brown and animals of
Arctic and tundra region are white. Here animal hides against a background of the same
colour in order to protect themselves from predators and also for hunting their prey.
2. Disruptive Colouration: The dark spots or stripes found on the animal’s skin are mainly
used to camouflage themselves and to escape from their predators.
3. Disguise: The change in their appearance or colour which gets the blend with their
surroundings by their colour, texture and shape.
The above types of camouflage can be achieved by different methods, described below. Most of
the methods contribute to crypsis, helping to hide against a background; but mimesis and motion
dazzle protect without hiding. Methods may be applied on their own or in combination.
1. Crypsis
Crypsis means blending with the background, making the animal hard
to see as some animals colour and pattern resembles a particular natural
background. Such as tree dwelling parakeets are mainly green in
colour, desert animals are almost coloured in sand tones
E.g. Egyptian nightjar nests in open muddy and sand areas,

2. Disruptive Colouration
Disruptive pattern use highly contrasting non-repeating
markings such as spot or stripes to break up the outline of
an animal or to conceal the telltale features such as eyes,
nose etc.
E.g. Predators like leopard use disruptive colouration to
help them to approach on prey, while other potential prey
uses it to avoid detection
3. Eliminating Shadow
Some animals have evolved measures to eliminate shadow. Their
bodies are flattened with sides thinning to edges. The animals
press their bodies to ground and their sides are fringed with
white scales which effectively hide and disrupt any remaining
areas of shadow.
E.g. Round tailed horned lizard curves it’s back and resembles a
rock.
Pararge aegeria minimizes their shadows when perched by
closing their wing over their back and adjusting their bodies to
sun and tilting to one side towards the sun so shadow becomes a
in conspicuous line rather than broad patch.
4. Counter Shading
Counter shading is a type of colouration
commonly found in animals in which the
animal’s dorsal side is dark while its
undersight is light in colour helping the
animal blend with complex surroundings.
E.g. Blue whale,sharks, salamanders, frogs
It is also called thayer’s law. Here the
camouflaging object consists of two surfaces each with simple function of providing
concealment against specific background.
5. Self Decoration
Some animals hide by decorating themselves with materials such as
twigs, sand or pieces of shell from the surrounding to break up the outline
and conceal the features of the body to blend with the environment.
E.g. A decorator crab covers its back with seaweed, sponges and stones.
6. Change in skin pattern or colour
Animals such as chameleon, frog, cuttle fish, squid,
octopus actively change skin colour and pattern using
special cells called biochromes. Chromatophore cell
is a type of biochrome cell which is scattered on the
surface of the animal body just below the skin. These
are pigments such as xanthophores, erthythrophores,
irridophores, melanophores. When the animal receives
radiation of different wavelength from surrounding it
accordingly arranges its chromatophore cells in the
body.
E.g. Chameleon
7. Motion Camouflage
Most of camouflages are ineffective when the
object moves, but sometimes some insects use
this motion camouflage to avoid being seen.
The camouflaging object chooses its flight
path and all of a sudden changes its direction
by looming, this changes its size as it
approaches.
E.g. Dragon flies
8. Motion Dazzel
Some animals have contrasting patterns or
stripes on body, so when an animal moves with
a high speed it degrades the predators’ ability to
estimate the prey’s speed and direction giving
the prey an increased chance to escape.
E.g. Zebra
9. Counter Illumination
It is producing light to match the background that is
brighter than an animal’s body. It is a form of active
camouflage. The latter has a light producing organ
(photophores) scattered all over the body of animal and its
underside. This creates that prevents an animal to appear as
a dark shape.
E.g. Fireflies squid sparkling in their own light to appear as
bright as sea surface.
10. Transparency
Aquatic animals that float near the surface are highly
transparent. The marine organisms have similar refractive
index as that of the water.
A transparency of 50% is enough to make an animal
invisible to its predator and the gelatinous planktonic animal
attend a transparency of 50%-90%. Better transparency is
required for invisibility in shallower region where light is
brighter.
E.g. Squids, jelly fish
11. Silvering
When transparency cannot be achieved it can be imitated
effectively by silvering to make animals body highly
reflective. At medium depths at sea, light comes from above,
so a mirror oriented vertically makes animals such as fish
invisible from side
E.g. Sardines and herrings