Science Friday has posted a video about how researchers are developing camo to dupe deer. Apparently researchers trained deer to take a vision test!
UPDATE: American Hunter have reviewed Gore's Optifade camo.
[ Many thanks to Mik for emailing me the link. ]
Hmm, from my experience deer don’t care so much about what they see but rather what they smell. Same for other animals like chamois. I once got within 10 meters of a chamois in the mountains. Only because the wind was blowing to my advantage.
Then again, our hunting style is different to the American. We hunt deer from a stand. Wait for them to come to us and then blast them. Hunting chamois, though, requires lots of hiking, no stand, just climbing up mountains and using your walking stick as an aid when aiming.
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0Heh… this is the only advantage I have found to being color blind. I haven’t found a camo pattern yet that didn’t stick out like a sore thumb when I look at the demo pictures… I guess because the people who design it have normal color vision and design with that in mind. To me, though, the colors don’t match, and it’s easy to spot.
Of course, since I’m neither a deer nor a soldier, this capability doesn’t really do me much good!
0 0I’d read in the past that deer see farther into the ultraviolet than we do; which is why you should not wash your hunting clothes in detergents with ultraviolet brighteners (which most of them have). So don’t wash your hunting clothes; or if you do, use special hunters’ detergent, or just plain water. They don’t live as long as we do; so the problem of going blind from increased ultraviolet absorption doesn’t matter so much.
Of course, this understanding is somewhat dated, and these new studies may revise that knowlege.
0 0I love science Friday! That was a pretty cool video (I’d be interested to hear more about how they taught deer to take a vision test).
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Hmm, from my experience deer don’t care so much about what they see but rather what they smell. Same for other animals like chamois. I once got within 10 meters of a chamois in the mountains. Only because the wind was blowing to my advantage.
Then again, our hunting style is different to the American. We hunt deer from a stand. Wait for them to come to us and then blast them. Hunting chamois, though, requires lots of hiking, no stand, just climbing up mountains and using your walking stick as an aid when aiming.
Heh… this is the only advantage I have found to being color blind. I haven’t found a camo pattern yet that didn’t stick out like a sore thumb when I look at the demo pictures… I guess because the people who design it have normal color vision and design with that in mind. To me, though, the colors don’t match, and it’s easy to spot.
Of course, since I’m neither a deer nor a soldier, this capability doesn’t really do me much good!
I’d read in the past that deer see farther into the ultraviolet than we do; which is why you should not wash your hunting clothes in detergents with ultraviolet brighteners (which most of them have). So don’t wash your hunting clothes; or if you do, use special hunters’ detergent, or just plain water. They don’t live as long as we do; so the problem of going blind from increased ultraviolet absorption doesn’t matter so much.
Of course, this understanding is somewhat dated, and these new studies may revise that knowlege.
I love science Friday! That was a pretty cool video (I’d be interested to hear more about how they taught deer to take a vision test).