Dictionary

obliterative coloration en · NOUN

Etymology

Coined by American artist Gerald Handerson Thayer

Meanings

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

Forms