- Location
- The Conservative part of Ontario
huntontario.com
By: Russ Swerdlyk
Jack Webster is the best deer hunter I know. He has a distinct advantage over me, though. Jack is colour-blind. When he's in deer country, not only does he think like a deer, he sees what they see.
How deer see has been a topic of debate for as long as I can remember. When I first started hunting deer, hunters believed that deer, being colour-blind, only see in black and white. Recently, however, much research has focused on how deer see. It's a high-intensity search for ways to decrease the increasing number of deer/automobile accidents throughout the U. S. and Canada. Deer hunters can also benefit from these studies. What researchers have discovered about how deer see can influence drastically what a hunter wears.
Let's look at what the research revealed, starting with what we define as vision. Light enters the eye and hits cones and rods in the back of it. Rods work in the absence or near absence of light and permit vision at dusk and at night. Cones function in daylight and basically provide colour vision. The cones and rods send a signal to the brain that's perceived as black and white or colour vision.
Colour is a function of the wavelength of light that hits the eye. Each colour has its own wavelength. The colour spectrum ranges from ultraviolet through violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and infrared. Red wavelengths of light are longer and violet wavelengths are shorter. Between red and violet - the colours visible to humans - there's a continuous range or spectrum of wavelengths. When they're all present, white is perceived by the brain, thus the term white light. White is a combination of all colours. Black is the total absence of light and its wavelengths.
Humans have trichromatic vision that includes short, medium, and long wavelength light. Deer, on the other hand, are colour-blind in a certain spectrum of the colour scale. They have a lower concentration of cones and thus have altered daytime and colour vision, compared with humans. To compensate for the lesser number of cones, deer have a higher concentration of rods or nighttime-vision cells (scotopic vision).
Deer have only two types of cones in their retinas. This limits their colour vision in long wavelength colours such as red and orange. Deer lack the red cones that pick up red wavelength light and thus the brain of a deer perceives colour vision differently.
Deer are red-green colour-blind (protonope) and thus are not trichromatic, but dichromatic. Deer see red both in terms of its saturation or depth of colour and its brightness differently from humans. Red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, and green appear somewhat shifted in hue, and all appear paler than they do to the human eye. The redness component that a human sees in a violet colour is so weakened for deer that they might fail to detect it and therefore see only the blue component. Some researchers conclude that, in full daylight, deer see their world as shades of yellow, except for any blues present.
What does this mean to a hunter? Deer can see the difference between red and blue, but not red, orange, and green. Hunters wearing green, orange, or red clothing would be equally suited for hunting, but wearing any blue (blue jeans) would be a disadvantage.
There are other differences between human and deer eyesight. Deer pupils open wider than humans and thus gather more light in dim conditions such as at dusk and at night. Deer also have a reflective tapetum in their eyes that can be seen as a shining eyeball at night. This layer reflects light that enters the eye, to enable a deer to see better at night.
Unlike human eyes, those of a deer have no way of blocking ultraviolet light. They're able to see wavelengths in the UV spectrum, but give up the ability to see fine detail. One implication for the hunter is that fabrics containing brighteners are more visible to deer than they are to hunters. Washing hunting clothing in detergents that contain brighteners might negatively impact your ability to remain hidden from deer. To them, brighteners result in your clothing having an unnaturally bright blue or white glow. Consider the information on deer colour-blindness when purchasing hunting garments. Keeping in mind that scent and movement are also obvious giveaways to deer, hunters can manipulate combinations of clothing to their advantage. And be sure to wash hunting clothing in a product that contains no UV brighteners, or use a UV-lowering spray product.
To simulate what deer see, I photographed hunters in various combinations of clothing in combination with Ministry of Natural Resources requirements for blaze orange. Then, I removed the red wavelength from the slide and compared the photos, as deer might see the hunter.
To put things in perspective, let's review the clothing requirements for Ontario hunters. All hunters, including archery hunters during the gun season for deer or moose and all black bear hunters during the bear season, except when in a tree stand, are required to wear hunter orange. Waterfowl hunters, wild turkey hunters, and archery hunters in archery-only areas are exempt.
A hunter-orange garment and head cover must be worn. The garment must cover a minimum of 400 square inches above the waist and be visible from all sides. Open mesh or camouflage hunter orange must not be part of the 400 square inches.
The hunter-orange hat may have open mesh, a peak or brim colour other than hunter orange, and a crest or logo that doesn't completely cover the hunter orange on the side where it is affixed, but may not contain camouflage material.
The objective of the hunter-orange regulation is, of course, to maximize hunter safety without negatively impacting hunting success. Most hunters use full blaze-orange hunting clothing that's visible to deer as a solid block of colour. By combining camouflage clothing, blaze-orange camo, or snow camo, hunters can provide better concealment and still maximize safety and concealment. When these combinations were converted to protonope photos, the results were relatively obvious.
The least desirable combination of hunting clothing would be the required hunter-orange vest and hat combined with any other clothing in blue, such as a blue jacket or blue jeans. Except for sky, water, and a few plants and berries, in natural Ontario there is no blue-coloured habitat.
Deer see blue as true blue, a totally unnatural colour in their home range. If a deer sees any blue, this is a tipoff something is wrong and a human is in the picture.
Solid hunter orange is the most visible of the combinations, but it does have drawbacks. It appears in the converted photos as a solid colour that stands out in mixed forest. By not breaking up or fitting in with the variance of vegetation, the hunter wearing solid hunter orange will have a difficult time moving at all and not being detected. This is especially true when moving the arms to shoot a gun.
Camo with the required hunter orange is a good combination. Choose a pattern to match the hunting terrain. If it doesn't, it can be more detectable than the hunter wishes. The best choices for concealment were camo blaze orange and snow camo in combination with the required hunter-orange vest and hat. The blaze-orange camo with orange vest and hat stood out as the safest combination and the breakup of the arms and jacket helped the hunter blend in with the surroundings. Movement of the arms was more difficult to pick up because of the broken pattern. Snow camo in place of blaze camo was the best choice for winter hunting. The white blend fit in well with the concealment philosophy.
By paying attention first to scent and movement, avoiding the use of detergent brighteners for clothing, voiding blue from your hunting garments, and combining camo patterns with the required hunter-orange vest and hat, a hunter can improve the ability to remain concealed. Once I converted the photos to simulate what deer might see (only deer know for sure), I certainly decided to change the way I'll dress for this fall's hunts.
By: Russ Swerdlyk
Jack Webster is the best deer hunter I know. He has a distinct advantage over me, though. Jack is colour-blind. When he's in deer country, not only does he think like a deer, he sees what they see.
How deer see has been a topic of debate for as long as I can remember. When I first started hunting deer, hunters believed that deer, being colour-blind, only see in black and white. Recently, however, much research has focused on how deer see. It's a high-intensity search for ways to decrease the increasing number of deer/automobile accidents throughout the U. S. and Canada. Deer hunters can also benefit from these studies. What researchers have discovered about how deer see can influence drastically what a hunter wears.
Let's look at what the research revealed, starting with what we define as vision. Light enters the eye and hits cones and rods in the back of it. Rods work in the absence or near absence of light and permit vision at dusk and at night. Cones function in daylight and basically provide colour vision. The cones and rods send a signal to the brain that's perceived as black and white or colour vision.
Colour is a function of the wavelength of light that hits the eye. Each colour has its own wavelength. The colour spectrum ranges from ultraviolet through violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and infrared. Red wavelengths of light are longer and violet wavelengths are shorter. Between red and violet - the colours visible to humans - there's a continuous range or spectrum of wavelengths. When they're all present, white is perceived by the brain, thus the term white light. White is a combination of all colours. Black is the total absence of light and its wavelengths.
Humans have trichromatic vision that includes short, medium, and long wavelength light. Deer, on the other hand, are colour-blind in a certain spectrum of the colour scale. They have a lower concentration of cones and thus have altered daytime and colour vision, compared with humans. To compensate for the lesser number of cones, deer have a higher concentration of rods or nighttime-vision cells (scotopic vision).
Deer have only two types of cones in their retinas. This limits their colour vision in long wavelength colours such as red and orange. Deer lack the red cones that pick up red wavelength light and thus the brain of a deer perceives colour vision differently.
Deer are red-green colour-blind (protonope) and thus are not trichromatic, but dichromatic. Deer see red both in terms of its saturation or depth of colour and its brightness differently from humans. Red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, and green appear somewhat shifted in hue, and all appear paler than they do to the human eye. The redness component that a human sees in a violet colour is so weakened for deer that they might fail to detect it and therefore see only the blue component. Some researchers conclude that, in full daylight, deer see their world as shades of yellow, except for any blues present.
What does this mean to a hunter? Deer can see the difference between red and blue, but not red, orange, and green. Hunters wearing green, orange, or red clothing would be equally suited for hunting, but wearing any blue (blue jeans) would be a disadvantage.
There are other differences between human and deer eyesight. Deer pupils open wider than humans and thus gather more light in dim conditions such as at dusk and at night. Deer also have a reflective tapetum in their eyes that can be seen as a shining eyeball at night. This layer reflects light that enters the eye, to enable a deer to see better at night.
Unlike human eyes, those of a deer have no way of blocking ultraviolet light. They're able to see wavelengths in the UV spectrum, but give up the ability to see fine detail. One implication for the hunter is that fabrics containing brighteners are more visible to deer than they are to hunters. Washing hunting clothing in detergents that contain brighteners might negatively impact your ability to remain hidden from deer. To them, brighteners result in your clothing having an unnaturally bright blue or white glow. Consider the information on deer colour-blindness when purchasing hunting garments. Keeping in mind that scent and movement are also obvious giveaways to deer, hunters can manipulate combinations of clothing to their advantage. And be sure to wash hunting clothing in a product that contains no UV brighteners, or use a UV-lowering spray product.
To simulate what deer see, I photographed hunters in various combinations of clothing in combination with Ministry of Natural Resources requirements for blaze orange. Then, I removed the red wavelength from the slide and compared the photos, as deer might see the hunter.
To put things in perspective, let's review the clothing requirements for Ontario hunters. All hunters, including archery hunters during the gun season for deer or moose and all black bear hunters during the bear season, except when in a tree stand, are required to wear hunter orange. Waterfowl hunters, wild turkey hunters, and archery hunters in archery-only areas are exempt.
A hunter-orange garment and head cover must be worn. The garment must cover a minimum of 400 square inches above the waist and be visible from all sides. Open mesh or camouflage hunter orange must not be part of the 400 square inches.
The hunter-orange hat may have open mesh, a peak or brim colour other than hunter orange, and a crest or logo that doesn't completely cover the hunter orange on the side where it is affixed, but may not contain camouflage material.
The objective of the hunter-orange regulation is, of course, to maximize hunter safety without negatively impacting hunting success. Most hunters use full blaze-orange hunting clothing that's visible to deer as a solid block of colour. By combining camouflage clothing, blaze-orange camo, or snow camo, hunters can provide better concealment and still maximize safety and concealment. When these combinations were converted to protonope photos, the results were relatively obvious.
The least desirable combination of hunting clothing would be the required hunter-orange vest and hat combined with any other clothing in blue, such as a blue jacket or blue jeans. Except for sky, water, and a few plants and berries, in natural Ontario there is no blue-coloured habitat.
Deer see blue as true blue, a totally unnatural colour in their home range. If a deer sees any blue, this is a tipoff something is wrong and a human is in the picture.
Solid hunter orange is the most visible of the combinations, but it does have drawbacks. It appears in the converted photos as a solid colour that stands out in mixed forest. By not breaking up or fitting in with the variance of vegetation, the hunter wearing solid hunter orange will have a difficult time moving at all and not being detected. This is especially true when moving the arms to shoot a gun.
Camo with the required hunter orange is a good combination. Choose a pattern to match the hunting terrain. If it doesn't, it can be more detectable than the hunter wishes. The best choices for concealment were camo blaze orange and snow camo in combination with the required hunter-orange vest and hat. The blaze-orange camo with orange vest and hat stood out as the safest combination and the breakup of the arms and jacket helped the hunter blend in with the surroundings. Movement of the arms was more difficult to pick up because of the broken pattern. Snow camo in place of blaze camo was the best choice for winter hunting. The white blend fit in well with the concealment philosophy.
By paying attention first to scent and movement, avoiding the use of detergent brighteners for clothing, voiding blue from your hunting garments, and combining camo patterns with the required hunter-orange vest and hat, a hunter can improve the ability to remain concealed. Once I converted the photos to simulate what deer might see (only deer know for sure), I certainly decided to change the way I'll dress for this fall's hunts.
