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Camouflage is the by-product of an evolutionary arms race between one group - the predators - that want to eat another group - the prey.
偽裝是想要吃掉獵物的捕食者群體和獵物群體之間進化競賽的副產(chǎn)品。
Prey seek to survive by tricking the perceptual and cognitive systems of the predators.
獵物通過欺騙捕食者的感知和認(rèn)知系統(tǒng)得以生存。
And predators look to eat by breaking through the camouflage of the prey.
捕食者通過識破獵物的偽裝來尋找食物。
To put it all more formally, predators need to maximise their perception of signal (their proposed meal) from the noise (the general environment); the goal of prey is to minimise that same signal-to-noise ratio.
更專業(yè)一點來說，捕食者需要將自己感知“信號”（他們可能的食物）的能力在噪音中（一般環(huán)境中）最大化；而獵物的目標(biāo)是將相同的信噪比降至最低。
While the physical manifestations of camouflage might be diverse, they function in one of three ways: to impair detection, to impair identification or to redirect attack.
雖然偽裝的物理表現(xiàn)可能多種多樣，但它們的作用方式一般有三種：干擾捕食者的探測、干擾捕食者的識別，以及改變其攻擊方向。
Methods that impair detection trick the perceptual system of a predator into believing that the prey is simply not there.
干擾捕食者的探測指欺騙捕食者的感知系統(tǒng)，讓他們相信獵物根本不在那里。
Octopuses change colour to match their backgrounds, for example.
舉例來說，章魚會改變自己身體的顏色，使之與背景融為一體。
The tasselled wobbegong shark conceals its shadow against the ocean floor by being incredibly wide and flat.
葉須鯊的體型十分寬大而平坦，能夠?qū)⒆约弘[藏在海底。
The white bellies of penguins match the sky, and their black coats, the depths of the ocean, in what is known as "countershading".
企鵝腹部的白色與天空的顏色相一致，背部的黑色皮毛與海洋深處的顏色相一致，這也就是我們所說的“反蔭蔽”。
The arctic fox sports white fur in the winter and brown or grey in the summer.
北極狐的皮毛在冬天是白色，在夏天是棕色或灰色。
The comb jelly is transparent.
櫛水母身體是透明的。
Deep-sea fish are very black.
深海魚的顏色很黑。
Often, the evolution of this kind of camouflage is detectable on a shorter timescale too - the populations of dark-coloured peppered moths grew in England, for example, as sooty pollution increased in the 19th century during the Industrial Revolution.
通常來說，在較短一段時間內(nèi)也能觀察到偽裝的進化發(fā)展——例如，19世紀(jì)工業(yè)革命期間，煙塵污染增加時，英國深色胡椒蛾的數(shù)量有所增加。
Correspondingly, the population of light-coloured moths rose when pollution levels fell.
相應(yīng)地，當(dāng)污染水平下降時，淺色蛾的數(shù)量會有所增加。
Impairing identification tricks the cognitive system of predators into thinking that whatever it is looking at is uninteresting (and definitely not food-like).
干擾捕食者的識別指引導(dǎo)捕食者的認(rèn)知系統(tǒng)，使其認(rèn)為自己目前正在觀察的東西毫無趣味(而且肯定不像食物)。
The dead leaf butterfly, for example, looks like a dead leaf.
例如，枯葉蛺蝶看起來就像一片枯葉。
Predators themselves use this too - leopards have high-contrast disruptive patterning which allows them to better blend into shadowy bushes and tall grass to avoid detection by their prey.
捕食者自己也使用這種技巧——豹子身上有高對比度的破壞性花紋，這使得它們能夠更好地融入幽暗的灌木叢和高高的草叢中，以免被獵物發(fā)現(xiàn)。
Redirecting attention is a way to try to reduce the lethality of attack, thereby increasing the chances of survival.
轉(zhuǎn)移注意力是試圖降低捕食者攻擊強度，從而增加自身生存機會的技巧。
The eyespots on the wings of a peacock butterfly, for example, divert attention towards less important regions of the insect's body.
例如，孔雀蛺蝶翅膀上的眼點會讓捕食者的注意力轉(zhuǎn)移到它身體不太重要的區(qū)域。
Zebras' stripes deploy a technique called "motion dazzle", which disrupts a predator's ability to work out which direction the animals are moving in.
斑馬的條紋利用了一種名為“運動性眩暈”的錯覺，可以擾亂捕食者對其移動方向的判斷。
How good are any of these camouflage tactics?
這些偽裝戰(zhàn)術(shù)有多有效？
A study published this week in Proceedings of the Royal Society B tries to find out.
本周發(fā)表在《英國皇家學(xué)會會刊B》上的一項研究試圖找出答案。
