Camouflage is the method which allows an otherwise visible organism or object to remain

indiscernible from the surrounding environment. Examples include a tiger's stripes and the
battledress of a modern soldier. Camouflage is a form of deception. The word camouflage comes
from the French word 'camoufler' meaning 'to disguise'.

Camouflage History
Camouflage is derived from the French word camoufler, which means "to blind or veil." Also
known as protective concealment, it means to disguise an object, in plain view, for the purpose of
concealing it from something or someone. American artist, Abbott Thayer, made an important
observation about animals in nature In the late 1800s that became useful in the development of
modern camouflage. Thayer noticed many animals had colors that gradually faded from dark on
their backs, to almost white on their bellies. This is key to the use of modern camouflage. The
graduation from dark to light breaks up an object's surface and makes it harder for one to see it as
a single item. An object's three dimensional qualities are lost and it appears flat. Modern
camouflage was created in 1915 by the French army. France created a new unit called the
camouflage division and artists were some of the first people called in to help develop
camouflage during W.W.I.

Camouflage for the Hunter

Camouflage is very important for hunting deer. It is not a fashion statement. Its primary purpose
is to break up your outline. Deer are twice as likely to detect movement than they are a hunter
with no camouflage. For instance, a deer will more likely notice a camouflaged hunter moving in
a treestand, than a hunter in regular street clothes sitting still in a treestand.
But, this is not to say you should not buy camouflage. It still breaks up your outline and helps
you blend in better with your surroundings. For example, camouflage is used to help animals
attack their prey. As a hunter you want to be able to hunt and spot deer without them knowing
you are there. Camouflage allows you to do just that.
To tie the importance of camouflage and movement together, take for example the white-tailed
deer. It does not rely on its camouflage alone. Even though it is perfectly camouflaged with the
colors, black, white, brown, gray, and reddish brown, it still is easily detected when it moves. As
long as a deer stands still or moves ever so slightly, it is virtually invisible.
As a hunter, having both camouflage and minimal movement greatly improves your hunting
success.

Choosing Camouflage
When choosing your camouflage, consider the environment where you hunt most and try to
match it to the pattern as best as you can. The most popular patterns are Mossy Oak™ Break-
up, Obsession, Realtree™ Hardwoods, Advantage™ Wetlands, MAX-4 and Classic. These
patterns are available in our camouflage bedding and as well as baby camo clothes.

Camouflage in nature
Camouflage by its very nature is intended for animals to help avoid detection by predators or
prey. 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.

Camouflaging coloration
This 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 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 (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 different camouflage
than 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. For example, if the predator is color blind, 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.
Camouflage 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 camouflage as well. 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.

Disguise
The camouflage technique of disguise is not as common as coloration, but can be found
throughout nature as well. Animals may disguise themselves as something uninteresting in the
hopes that their predators will ignore them, or as something dangerous so that predators will
avoid them.
The most famous example of the former is the stick insect, which looks like a stick, as well as its
cousin the leaf insect, which looks like a leaf.
Disguising oneself as something dangerous is known as mimicry, such as the case of a Scarlet
Kingsnake which looks like the poisonous coral snake.

Military camouflage
A simple example of common military style camouflage.
Camouflage was not in wide use in early warfare. 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.
Smaller, irregular units of scouts in the 18th century were the first to adopt colors in drab shades
of brown and green. Major armies retained their color until convinced otherwise. The British in
India in 1857 were forced by casualties to dye their red tunics to neutral tones, initially a muddy
tan called khaki (from the Urdu word for 'dusty'). White tropical uniforms were dyed by the
simple expedient of soaking them in tea. This was only a temporary measure. It became standard
in Indian service in the 1880s, but it was not until the Second Boer War that, in 1902, the
uniforms of the entire British army were standardized on this dun tone for battledress. Other
armies, such as the United States, Russia, Italy, and Germany followed suit either with khaki, or
with other colors more suitable for their environments.