Countershading is a form of camouflage where an animal will be lighter on the bottom and darker on the top.

This camouflage method is thought to be beneficial because these animals will tend to be darker

in situ on the bottom, because of the shadow cast by their bodies from the sun, shining down

on them from above.

To be naturally lighter, down where they will be shadowed then, can cause them to flatten from the

point of view of a potential predator. Denying that predator three-dimensional information about

that camouflaged animal that might allow them to fully comprehend its size, its shape, where its

wings or fins or legs or eyes are located, and in which direction that animal is moving or facing.

Disruptive coloration is another natural method of camouflage found across the animal kingdom.

Creatures with this type of coloration tend to blend into their environment,

their outlines broken up by strangely high-cont contrast patterns across their bodies.

Many types of snake, bird, and large cat utilize disruptive coloration, as do giraffes.

Though like most creatures with these patterns, when outside their normal ecosystem, their coloration stands out in a big way.

A giraffe anywhere but their savanna habitat are more

obtrusive than other animals, not less, and the same is true of cheetahs, butterflies, and Mexican

vine snakes. These and other methods of camouflage found in nature eventually found their way

to military applications, with perhaps the most famous examples

found in camouflage patterns worn by soldiers, the dark green patterns on their clothing, standing

out in civilian life or in the Arctic, but blending in amazingly well in forests and jungles.

But a less famous application is probably the most interesting,

though it utilizes very different patterns and colors than those generally found on individual soldiers.

During World War I, a zoologist named John Carr proposed that the British Navy make use of patterns

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