obliterative coloration

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Coined by American artist Gerald Handerson Thayer

Noun

obliterative coloration (uncountable)

  1. The coloration of an animal that makes it blend into the background; camouflage.
    • 1909, Gerald Handerson Thayer, Concealing-coloration in the Animal Kingdom, page 147:
      We have here, as far as these patterns go, a complete inversion of the regular obliterative coloration.
    • 2005, Timothy M. Caro, Antipredator Defenses in Birds and Mammals, page 60:
      The problem with the topic of obliterative coloration is that it is very well accepted despite there being so few empirical tests of the phenomenon.
    • 2011, Matthew Brower, Developing Animals: Wildlife and Early American Photography, page 230:
      Obliterative coloration aims to make animals invisible, while mimicry is deceptive visibility aiming to make the animal appear as something else.