Abstract
Camouflage in nature seems to arise from competition between predator and prey. To survive, predators must find prey, while prey must avoid being found. A simulation model of that adversarial relationship is presented here. Camouflage patterns of prey coevolve in competition with visual perception of predators. During their lifetimes, predators learn to better locate the camouflaged prey they encounter. The environment for this 2-D simulation is provided by photographs of natural scenes. The model consists of two evolving populations, one of prey and another of predators. Conflict between these populations produces both effective prey camouflage and predators able to “break” camouflage. The resulting open-source Artificial Life model can help the study of camouflage in nature and the perceptual phenomenon of camouflage more generally.