What is the meaning of Camouflage? What are the different types of Camouflage animals?

Camouflage word came from the French camouflage, which means "to disguise." Camouflage is defined as to hide or disguise something by covering it up or changing the way looks it. Using of natural or artificial material on personnel object with aim of confusing or misleading the enemy for example- The rabbit uses its white fur as a camouflage in the snow.
Camouflage animals are the animals that use camouflage to disguise themselves according to their surroundings to protect them from predators. There are different types of camouflage animal as follows:- 1.Concealing colouration- Most of the forest habitat animals are different in colour. So, here animal changes their colour to protect themselves from predators and also for hunting their prey for example-Chameleons change their colour to hide and to reflect their mood. 2.Disruptive Colouration - The animals having dark spots or stripes on the skin using this camouflage to escape from their predators For example- Predators like leopards and tigers have this disruptive colouration that helps in moving or hiding in between the branches before attacking its prey. 3.Disguise- The change in their appearance or colour which gets the blend with their surroundings by their colour and shape. This type of camouflage is generally seen in insects like spiders, leaf butterfly, dragonfly katydid, stick bugs or stick insect, etc.4. Mimicry- Most of the animals mimic other animals to escape from their predators. This is done for appearance or behaviour and sometimes for sound or odour, for e.g- Viceroy butterflies mimic monarch butterfly to protect them from their predators –like birds.

Camouflage is the art of hiding by disguise. In the animal world it is used for changing the colour and shape of the body in such a fashion that the predator cannot find the prey so easily. Nature has made some animals expert in the area of camouflage. Many of them match themselves with the surrounding so well that we do not recognise them till they make a movement.

Camouflage may look a simple thing but the biology and science behind is much more complex as there are a lot of hormonal and chemical actions in bringing those changes apart from the physical efforts. Generally animals manage these camouflage conditions using two basic methods - one is through pigmentation and second is physical alteration of the body shape. Some animals have special light reflecting materials in their skin known as biochromes which give different lights with different incident light intensity and wavelength. Others have small peculiar physical prismatic characters in the body surface that give a different colour out than the actual colour of the skin. It is believed that these camouflage techniques are evolved in some of the species in a long time interval based on the principles of survival of the fittest and the species which could thrive the wild for a long have learned better techniques then their counterparts which have become extinct and got lost. There are various ways in which the animals manage it. Some of the types of camouflage are as under -

1. Background matching - This is the most common one and mainly depends in the capacity of the animal in blending itself with the colour of the surrounding. The owl can match its colour well with the bark of a tree and it is so perfect that we cannot make it out. The arctic fox turns brownish in the summer and becomes white in the winter. Some fishes look like ocean floor in the sea bottom. Many animals like deer and squirrels match themselves well with the Earth surface colour. Some animals get these traits just from the surroundings where they live and it is really a mystery as how they acquire these techniques for their protection in such an amazing manner.

2. Manipulation of body shape - This is more surprising and more amazing as some creatures look like something else and we cannot identify them even if they move. In southeast Asia there are some insects found which look like a leaf of a tree or a piece of stick and even if they move we will feel as if it is moving due to the wind. It is the highest level of camouflage and deserves applaud. One simple form of physical camouflage by manipulating the body shape is done by a cat when some dog or other cat attacks on it. The cat balloons its body and raises it up and try to frighten the offender. It often works also.

3. Disruptive coloration - In this camouflage technique the colour and pattern on the animals body will misguide and mislead the predator in such a way that the animal will get time to escape to safer places. For example some butterflies have big eye like circles on the tip of its wings and that mislead the predator to think it as some big animal having those two eyes staring on it. So it totally misleads it and even if it attacks it would not be precise as the offender's attack will be away from the softer body of the butterfly.

4. Warning coloration or Aposematism - This is very interesting kind of camouflage. In this the animal will have some distinct bright colour or dark rings on the body which tell the predator from its experience that it is not a good prey. What it means is that these creatures contain some sort of poison in their body and the predator knows that it would harm it. Very strange but true. Some species of caterpillars, larvas, snakes have this type of camouflage. Coral snake is an example.

5. Countershading - In this type of camouflage the animals will have a slightly darker colour on top and lighter below and it is generally found in the sea creatures where due to the gradational colour they blend well with the sea water and predators from up or down in both cases miss them. The interesting thing is that these creatures have their shadow also merging in that countershading and one cannot see them in conspicuous ways.

6. Olfactory camouflage - This is a rare type but interesting in its nature. In this technique the prey will create some smell resembling the smell of the offender itself. The predator gets confused and leaves.

Camouflage is also known as cryptic coloration. Organisms will be using this camouflage for masking themselves. They will do that so nobody will understand their location, identity, and movement. It is a self-protection mechanism and they can disguise themselves by changing their colour according to the situation and requirement. These animals will get blended themselves into the surroundings by changing their colour. Animals are able to disguise themselves by using two mechanisms namely pigments and physical structures.
Some animals will contain biochromes. These biochromes are capable of changing their colours. There are a variety of biochromes which will change the colour. They will also useful to change the pattern and opacity of skin.

Animals mainly use camouflage to:
1. Hide themselves
2. To get their food easily without getting noticed by their prey animals.
3. To blend into their environments.

The following are the types of Camouflage in Animals.

1. Concealing Colouration: Majority of animals in the forest are brown in colour. In some regions, they may be white. They hide in a background of the same colour to be safe and deceive their predators. They can easily hunt
their prey by staying in the same background.
Ex: Snowshoe hare, Chameleons and Octopus.
2. Disruptive Colouration: Some animals will have dark spots or stripes on their skin. These animals use them to hide. They use this to escape from their predators.
Ex: Zebras, leopards and tigers.
3. Disguise: Some animals change the colour of the skin or appearance so that they can get blended with the surroundings and nobody can identify them as a separate entity.
Ex: Leaf butterfly, dragonfly. stick bugs etc.
4. Mimicry: Some animals mimic other animals to deceive their predators. They can mimic their appearance and/or behaviour or smell.
Ex: Butterfly

Camouflage is a sort of adaptive technique-mostly inbuilt- by animals ,birds, reptiles etc to deceive their enemies or preys. They adapt and merge with the surrounding environmental factors so that the enemies or preys do not identify them making it easy for them to escape from enemies or to pounce upon their prey.
Their habitat habits, skin colour, movement, odour, sound etc emanating from them- one or more of these are used to camouflage themselves.
For many animals their skin colour can be adapted to be as like as the surrounding soils, bushes, leaves etc. They merge so well that it is not easy to identify them from the environment.
The most common example is the common Chameleon. It is known to change the colour so that it takes the colour of the surroundings it stays put in waiting.
There are certain insects, one moth-like the common cricket - which so nicely merges with the stem skin of trees so much so that even we cannot distinguish it from the tree skin.
Green hopper- This is a very common insect seen in our surrounding gardens and fields. Its colour is green and it merges so easily with the green leaves in the garden and fields. It can also camouflage itself sticking to thin shoots of plants and bushes.
Other hoppers- Just like the Green hoper, there are other hoppers which camouflage themselves and stick or hand to tree branches or dried shoots.
Butterflies- There are various butterflies which have adaptive camouflage ability. They get merged with certain colours of flowers which are same as their wings. They also rest and breed in such places where they get camouflaged like tree barks, tree skins, behind leaves dry or raw etc.
Wild animals: Wild animals are bestowed with soft paws which help it avoid sounds when moving. Sometimes even Elephant uses this camouflage technical to hide themselves from disturbance or closely watch enemies and poachers. Leopards and other animals in the cat family have the ability to camouflage by hiding or resting or waiting on tree branches or bushes or ground which have close proximity to their skin colour and pattern
Squirrels, Parrots, sparrow, wood pecker birds and many other birds and lower animal have such adaptive camouflage ability. Some birds can use their wing and feathers for camouflage effects.
While it is naturally given facility i all these animals, birds, insects and other creatures, even humans used camouflage to protect himself from the wild animals and also for hunting prey. In modern times camouflage dresses are used by armed forces to merge with the terrain and escape from enemy observation binoculars, telescopes and even from satellite spying.

Camouflage is a process or quality. Some organisms or animals can change their appearance, color, etc. Naturally, it is believed that God has given this art to certain creatures or animals so that they can live their life safely. The most common example for us is to change the color of the chameleon. Chameleons have often seen us changing colors, the chameleon changes its color according to its surroundings, especially its background, which also helps it to hunt and attack other creatures. There are many types of camouflage -
1. Some creatures and animals in their color according to their environment and condition. Changes do for example chameleon.
2. Some animals and animals change their body structure by looking at the weather like some creatures have changed in the cold and heat.
3. Some creatures also completely change their appearance due to the presence of dangers such as some hide in armor which looks like a flower from outside and is a creature from inside.
4. To attack their prey, creatures also change their shape, color, form, etc., and attack the prey by deceiving them.

Camouflage is a tactic that is used by animals to conceal themselves and protect from predators. It is also known as cryptic colouration. Actually, it is a defence mechanism used to blend their colour or appearance in their surroundings. in with their surroundings. Camouflaging helps the organism to hide their identity, and movement etc.

Camouflaging is mainly of five types:
1. Background matching
2. Disruptive colouration
3. Self-decoration
4. Active camouflage
5. Disguise

All form of camouflage has already been explained in the above posts. Here I am giving some more examples of camouflaging animals:

a. Goldenrod Crab Spider: The crab spider (Misumena vatia) occurs in the Goldenrod white and yellow flowers and the crab has the ability to change its colour from yellow to white and vice-versa according to the colour of its surrounding to match the background.

b. Leaf-tailed Gecko: Spot the presence of a Leaf-tailed Gecko is very difficult by its predators as it has great adaptations to change and match its body colours to the background and even in day time it is very difficult to identify it in the tree branches, tree trunk and leaf litters. It camouflages as a leaf or a bark.

c. Eastern Screech Owl: It shows disguise kind of camouflage. It rests in the tree cavity during day time and blends its grey-brown feathers with the tree barks.

d. Walking Stick or Stick Insect: They blend themselves into the surrounding leaves.

e. Sea Horse: It has the ability to match its colour and appearance in the sea with the fan corals and is very difficult to identify.

f. Hedge Hog: HedgeHog shows the behaviour of self-anointing and camouflage by using the same. In this phenomena, hedgehog blends the scent in the surrounding where it inhabits.

g. Leafy Sea dragon: Leafy Sea dragon also camouflage in seaweed.

You might be surprised to know that some plants also show camouflage. However, they show very limited activity as compared to animals. They usually show Disruptive colouration, Masquerade (pretend to be an unimportant object) e.g. Corydalis hemidicentra and Background matching e.g. Fritillaria devlavayi (This plant is green but sometimes become grey and blend itself in the rocky background).

Camouflage is a phenomenon used by plants and animals to blend themselves into their environment. Predators and prey alike use camouflage to hide themselves.

In this phenomenon, animals may change their skin colour as per their surrounding colour so that other animals cannot find themselves. Predators like leopards and tigers have their skin colour that helps them to move and hide themselves between the branches before attacking its prey.

Types of Camouflage in Animals:

# Concealing Colouration- Most of the animals who live in forest are brown in colour whereas the animals who live in colder region are white in colour. This help these animals hide in the background colour in order to protect themselves from predators and for hunting their prey. Best example is of chameleon which can change its colour to match with the background. Octopus can change both colour and skin texture.

# Disguise- The change in their appearance or colour blends with their surroundings by their colour, texture and shape.

Insects like spiders, leaf butterfly, dragonfly katydid, stick bugs or stick insect, etc use this type of camouflage.

# Mimicry- Many animals copy other animals to escape from their predators. The mimicry can either be in appearance or behaviour or sound or odour.

Viceroy butterflies copy Monarch butterfly to protect themselves from their predators –like birds. Birds do not attack monarch butterfly as they are poisonous.

Following are a few examples of camouflage animals:

Owl,Toads,Seahorse,Frog,Spider,Snow Leopard.