List of camouflage methods


is the concealment of animals or objects of military interest by any combination of methods that helps them to remain unnoticed. This includes the use of high-contrast disruptive patterns as used on military uniforms, but anything that delays recognition can be used as camouflage. Camouflage involves deception, whether by looking like the background or by resembling something else, which may be plainly visible to observers. This article lists methods used by animals and the military to escape notice.

Conventions used

Different camouflage methods employed by terrestrial, aerial, and aquatic animals, and in military usage, are compared in the table. Several methods are often combined, so for example the Bushbuck is both countershaded over its whole body, and disruptively coloured with small pale spots. Until the discovery of countershading in the 1890s, protective coloration was considered to be mainly a matter of colour matching, but while this is certainly important, a variety of other methods are used to provide effective camouflage.
When an entry is marked Dominant, that method is used widely in that environment, in most cases. For example, countershading is very common among land animals, but not for military camouflage. The dominant camouflage methods on land are countershading and disruptive coloration, supported by less frequent usage of many other methods. The dominant camouflage methods in the open ocean are transparency, reflection, and counterillumination. Transparency and reflectivity are dominant in the top of the ocean; counterillumination is dominant from down to. Most animals of the open sea use one or more of these methods. Military camouflage relies predominantly on disruptive patterns, though methods such as outline disruption are also used, and others have been prototyped.
In 1890 the English zoologist Edward Bagnall Poulton categorised animal colours by their uses, which cover both camouflage and mimicry. Poulton's categories were largely followed by Hugh Cott in 1940. Relevant Poulton categories are listed in the table. Where Poulton's definition covers a method but does not name it explicitly, the category is named in parentheses.

Comparisons

MethodPoulton
category		Terrestrial, aerialAquaticMilitary
Mimesis:
resembling something not of interest to the observer		Special aggressive resemblance:
mimesis by a predator to avoid scaring off prey		Flower mantis
Green frogfish
Sunshield
Mimesis:
resembling something not of interest to the observer		Special protective resemblance:
resemblance to a specific object by prey to avoid detection by predators		Dead leaf butterfly
Soft coral spider crab
Observation tree, 1916
Colour matching:
having similar colours to the environment		General protective resemblance:
resembling the background in a general way		European tree frog
Brown trout
Khaki uniforms, 1910
Disruptive coloration:
having high contrast coloration that breaks up outlines, so observers fail to recognise the object		General protective resemblance Papuan frogmouth
Dominant		Commerson's frogfish
Disruptive Pattern Material
Dominant
Disruptive eye mask:
a disruptive pattern that covers or runs up to the eyes, concealing them		Coincident disruptive pattern Common frog
Jack-knifefish
Gun barrel of
Sherman Firefly
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
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		—Gull
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
Yehudi lights
Transparency:
letting so much light through that the object is hard to see in typical lighting conditions		General protective resemblance Glass frogs
Comb jellies
Dominant 		1916 trials
Reflection :
reflecting enough light, usually from the sides, to make the object show as a patch of the environment		General protective resemblance —Pilchard
Dominant 		—
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 a broken or complex outline 		Special protective resemblance Comma butterfly
Leafy sea dragon
Scrim, branches
Distraction:
having coloration that distracts an observer's attention away from a feature of the object 		—Eyespots of
peacock butterfly
Foureye butterflyfish
False bow wave in
ship camouflage
Distractive markings
Small conspicuous marks that distract an observer's attention from recognising the object as a whole		—Snowy owl with distractively marked plumage
—Snow camouflage using small distractive marks
Active camouflage:
changing the coloration rapidly enough to maintain resemblance to the current background while moving		Variable aggressive resemblance, variable protective resemblance:
varying coloration to resemble the background, in predator and prey respectively		Veiled chameleon
Octopuses
Adaptiv
Motion camouflage:
following a track such that the object remains between a starting point and the target at all times, rather than going straight for the target		—Hoverfly
—Air-to-air missile
Used primarily for efficiency
Motion dazzle:
rapidly moving a bold pattern of contrasting stripes, confusing an observer's visual processing		—Zebra
—Proposal only
Dazzle camouflage:
bold patterns of contrasting stripes, deceiving enemy about ship's heading		———Ship camouflage, mainly WW1
Dominant 1917–18
Ultra-blackness:
extremely black surface, matching very dark background		——Deep-sea fish
Night fighters