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HUNTING: Thomas McIntyre
Camo Marches On
State-of-the-art Advantage camo gives a
three-dimensional look.
The story of life is one of big fish eating little fish. Prey has always had to hide from predator to keep from being eaten, and predator has had to hide from prey in order to go on eating. As long as it is necessary to hide, living things will continue to refine camouflage, so there is always more out there than meets the eye.
21 Million Years Ago: The cuttlefish (a cephalopod like the octopus and the squid) evolves. Its skin consists of elastic cells (chromatophores) containing pigments that vary from yellow, black, brown, and red to green. When triggered by hormones, the cells expand or contract, diffusing or concentrating the pigments, enabling the cuttlefish to match its background. It is able to change colors in seconds--faster than any other creature.
18 Million Later: The zebra's black-and-white hide is a classic example of the camouflage technique of disruptive coloration. The stripes break up the shape of the body, making it difficult for predators to judge the distance to a lone zebra or to pick one out of a herd. Countershading, in which an animal is darker on the back and lighter on the belly, is another means of interfering with depth perception.
Circa 1600: The Highlander's tartan serves as a blanket by night and a belted garment by day. Purple and blue are popular. Brown is used, according to Christian Hesketh in his 1961 book Tartan, "perhaps as a camouflage."
1830s: American painter George Catlin, in his Notes to the Manners, Customs and Conditions of the North American Indians, records: "While the herd of buffaloes are together, they seem to have little dread of the wolf, and allow them to come in close company to them. The Indian then has taken advantage of this fact, and often places himself under the skin of this animal, and crawls...until he approaches within a few rods of the unsuspecting group, and easily shoots down the fattest of the throng."
The Boer War: Since
uniforms of "sad green color" were ordered for forest troops in the
16th century, the English army has acknowledged the advantages of
camouflage. But not until the Boer War (1899 to 1902) is the red coat
abandoned. British officers, marked out by Boer snipers and killed at
ranges of up to 600 yards, cast aside their swords and all other
obvious insignia of rank; buttons and buckles are dulled; and khaki
becomes the color of battle dress.
WW I: The French initiate the military art of camouflage at the battle of Verdun. By concealing gun emplacements with netting and foliage, they keep their artillery losses to a fraction of the Germans'. Drab becomes the fashion statement of every army.
WW II and After: Mountain troops fighting in snow don white, while jungle warfare in the Pacific points up the need to camouflage invading Marines. A Belgian patents a camo pattern of black and brown amoeboid shapes. Known as "World War II style," it is what hunters have for camouflage for a generation. The Vietnam War adds tiger-stripe and woodland styles; the Gulf War leads to desert patterns.
1964: Next comes the camouflaging of hunting arms. Bear Archery begins offering the option of a camo paint job on its bows; price: $3. In 1989, Bear offers bows in Realtree pattern, while on the firearms side Mossberg is among the first manufacturers to produce a camouflaged shotgun when, in 1986, it brings out its Model 500 in its own pattern.
1980s: Bowhunter Jim Crumley began in the '70s to tie-dye his own camouflage, trying to mimic the gray and black shapes and vertical lines he saw in his deer and turkey woods. In 1980, he begins to manufacture hunting clothes in his refined Trebark pattern, the first camo style to bear a copyright. In 1986, Bill Jordan enters the market with Realtree while Toxey Haas develops Mossy Oak.
1997...: Reversible (from woodland to desert) "cammies," urban camo, patterns to vanish into the grids of night-vision scopes are all planned. Camouflage capable of changing colors to mimic the environment may be perfected, like the cuttlefish. ß
From the cuttlefish to Crumley, after 21 million years,
the art of concealment keeps getting better.
⌐ 1997 The Hearst Corporation. All rights reserved.
