Editing Camouflage (section)

=== Eliminating shadow ===

[[File:Counteracting shadow.svg|thumb|Camouflaged animals and vehicles are readily given away by their shapes and shadows. A flange helps to hide the shadow and a pale fringe breaks up and averages out any shadow that remains.]]

Some animals, such as the [[horned lizard]]s of North America, have evolved elaborate measures to eliminate [[shadow]]. Their bodies are flattened, with the sides thinning to an edge; the animals habitually press their bodies to the ground; and their sides are fringed with white scales which effectively hide and disrupt any remaining areas of shadow there may be under the edge of the body.<ref name="Sherbrooke">{{cite book |title=Introduction to horned lizards of North America |publisher=University of California Press |last=Sherbrooke |first=W. C. |year=2003 |pages=117–118 |isbn=978-0-520-22825-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zXlLdu3956gC&pg=PA118}}</ref> The theory that the body shape of the horned lizards which live in open desert is adapted to minimise shadow is supported by the one species which lacks fringe scales, the [[roundtail horned lizard]], which lives in rocky areas and resembles a rock. When this species is threatened, it makes itself look as much like a rock as possible by curving its back, emphasizing its three-dimensional shape.<ref name="Sherbrooke"/> Some species of butterflies, such as the speckled wood, ''[[Pararge aegeria]]'', minimise their shadows when perched by closing the wings over their backs, aligning their bodies with the sun, and tilting to one side towards the sun, so that the shadow becomes a thin inconspicuous line rather than a broad patch.{{sfn|Cott|1940|pages=104–105}} Similarly, some ground-nesting birds, including the [[European nightjar]], select a resting position facing the sun.{{sfn|Cott|1940|pages=104–105}} Eliminating shadow was identified as a principle of military camouflage during the [[Second World War]].<ref name="TTT">{{cite journal |author=U.S. War Department |title=Principles of Camouflage |journal=Tactical and Technical Trends |date=November 1943 |issue=37 |url=http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/ttt09/camouflage.html}}</ref>

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<gallery class="center" mode="nolines" heights="150px" widths="150px">
File:Ibexes.jpg|Three countershaded and cryptically coloured [[ibex]] almost invisible in the Israeli desert
File:Armoured personnel carriers, Eriboll - geograph.org.uk - 1316295.jpg|"Shape, shine, shadow" make these 'camouflaged' military vehicles easily visible.
File:Phrynosoma mcallii.jpg|The [[flat-tail horned lizard]]'s body is flattened and fringed to minimise its shadow.
File:Øvelse på Evjemoen Tropp 4.2 - camouflage nettings.jpg|Camouflage [[Net (textile)|netting]] is draped away from a military vehicle to reduce its shadow.
File:Perfect Camouflage (Caterpillar on teakwood branch).jpg|A caterpillar's fringe of bristles conceals its shadow.
</gallery>