CAMOUFLAGE IS THE GAME WE ALL LIKE TO PLAY, BUT OUR SECRETS ARE AS SURELY REVEALED BY WHAT WE WANT TO SEEM TO BE AS BY WHAT WE WANT TO CONCEAL
-RUSSELL LYNES
Before moving towards the main topic, everyone should be aware of what Camouflage exactly means? Camouflage is the use of leaves, branches, paints and clothes for hiding soldiers or military equipment so that they cannot be seen against the are around them. It is also the way that the colour or shape of an animal or plant appears to mix with the natural environment to prevent it from being seen and attacked. some of the examples of Camouflage are lizards’ light brown skin acts as a camouflage in the desert land; octopus, grasshopper, chameleon changes its colour on which it sits to avoid seeing by anyone. On this colour changing ability, ARISTOTLE has quotes-
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.
-ARISTOTLE
It is a topic on which research can be done and is of great interest. according to Charles Darwin’s 1859 theory of natural selection, he 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 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.
-CHARLES DARWIN
Earlier, in ancient times Ship Camouflage was also used occasionally. In the first world war, the French army formed a Camouflage corps, to create schemes such as tree observation posts and covers for guns. There are different methods of Camouflage used by Terrestrial, Aquatic, Aerial animals, and in military usage.
NOTE:- YOU MAY HAVE A LOOK ON THE TABLE GIVEN BELOW MENTIONING DIFFERENT METHODS OF CAMOUFLAGE.
| Method | Poulton category | Terrestrial, aerial | Aquatic | Military |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mimesis: resembling something not of interest to the observer | Special aggressive resemblance: mimesis by a predator to avoid scaring off prey | Flower mantis | Green frog fish | Sun shield |
| Special protective resemblance: resemblance to a specific object by prey to avoid detection by predators | Dead leaf butterfly | Soft coral spider crab | ||
| Colour matching: having similar colours to the environment | General protective resemblance: resembling the background in a general way | European tree frog | Brown trou | Khaki uniforms, 1910 |
| Disruptive coloration: having high contrast coloration that breaks up outlines, so observers fail to recognise the object | General protective resemblance (a type of) | Papuan frogmouth Dominant | Commerson’s frogfish | Disruptive Pattern Material 100px Dominant |
| Seasonal variation: having coloration that varies with season, usually summer to winter | Variable general protective resemblance: having coloration that resembles the background in each season, in a general way | Arctic hare | — | Snow overalls |
| Side or Thayer countershading: having graded toning from dark above to light below, so as to cancel out the apparent effect of self-shadowing when viewed from the side | — | Bushbuck Dominant | Blue shark | Hugh Cott‘s guns (see that article for image) |
| Above/below countershading: having different colours or patterns above and below, to camouflage the upperside for observers from above, and the underside for observers from below | — | — | Penguins | Supermarine Spitfire |
| Counterillumination: generating light to raise the brightness of an object to match a brighter background, as of a marine animal’s underside against the sea surface | — | — | Sparkling enope squid Dominant (100–1000m) | Yehudi lights (prototype) |
| Transparency: letting so much light through that the object is hard to see in typical lighting conditions | General protective resemblance (a type of) | Glass frogs | Comb jellies Dominant (0–100m) | — |
| Reflection (silvering): reflecting enough light, usually from the sides, to make the object show as a (reflected) patch of the environment | General protective resemblance (a type of) | — | Pilchard Dominant (0–100m) | — |
| Self-decoration: covering oneself in materials from the environment | Adventitious protection: covering oneself in materials that are not part of the body | Masked hunter bug | Decorator crabs | Ghillie suit |
| Concealment of shadow: having features such as flanges or a flattened body to reduce or hide the shadow | — | Flying lizard | Tasselled wobbegong | Camouflage netting |
| Irregular outline: having an broken or complex outline (that may help delay recognition by an observer) | Special protective resemblance (types of) | Comma butterfly | Leafy sea dragon | Scrim, branches |
| Feature disruption: having high contrast markings that specifically break up or conceal distinctive features of the object | — | Eyestripe of Mexican vine snake | Eyestripe of Cobia | Gun barrel of Sherman Firefly |
| Distraction: having coloration that distracts an observer’s attention away from a feature of the object (such as the head or eye) | — | Eyespots of Peacock butterfly | Foureye butterflyfish | False bow wave in ship camouflage |
| Active camouflage: changing the coloration rapidly enough to maintain resemblance to the current background while moving | Variable aggressive resemblance, variable protective resemblance: varing coloration to resemble the background, in predator and prey respectively | Veiled chameleon | Octopuses | Adaptiv (see that article for image) |
| Motion camouflage: following a track such that the object remains between a starting point and the target (e.g. prey) at all times, rather than going straight for the target | — | Hoverfly | — | Air-to-air missile |
MOST INSANE CAMOUFLAGE IN THE WORLD
Militaries around the world use Camouflage to avoid detection by the opposing enemy in all kinds of environments, from jungle to city streets.
To avoid detection is to save life. all patterns are designed to help troops from being attacked.
Desert Camouflage has gone through a host of updates since the war of Iraq began in an effort to make troops harder to spot in sandy and dusty environments there. To know about the Camouflage have a look at this video clearly:-
CONCLUSION
After doing a lot of research on Camouflage, we came to know that Camouflage is the way of dressing our self as the nature surrounding in order to protect ourselves from the opposing armed force such as our Indian Army are acting as a Camouflage to attack the opposition by hiding themselves nearby their own surrounding. So Talepost media want to tell you that knowing about Camouflage seems interesting and its a topic on which more and more research can be done but still it feels like the research is incomplete.