Deer Vision

[redcloud102]

I was watching the video's that Deerfarmer posted and found something that caught my attention. The animals going past the IR beam was looking right at the light. Now I have read in my book published in 1998 called Whitetail Wisdom from North American Hunting Club. They had a study done of what deer could see and it said that the deer was seeing pretty much what a colorblind human could see. Now it said they could see in low light such as overcast and dawn and dusk the colors blue and yellow really well but they couldn't see the color red very well at all. It also stated the deer eye sight had a peak sensitivity at 496 nm.


Now back to the IR LED. Now with the camera Deerfarmer was using isn't the IR LED around the 850+ nm range ? So why do they all seem to look right at the camera ? Wouldn't the NM range be above what they are suppose to be able to see let alone the color they aren't suppose to be able to pick out very clearly. I haven't been able to find any new information on the subject so I was hoping somebody on the forum could help me out on this one. The study that was published in my book was done by Brian Murphy,Karl Miller and Larry Marchinton from the University of Georgia.


I'm just wanting to find out what color they can and can't see. Seems to me that camo is just for hiding the hunter from other hunters. As long as your not using some of the brighteners thats added to the laundry detergents then we should be fine right ? They say the brighteners are seen by deer as bright blue and you stick out like a sore thumb. Of course I'm not so sure about the info in the same book about that topic since it was a study done by Atsko.

[uglykat26]

ive been deer hunting a long time i have shot alot of deer , some i have shot dressed head to toe in hunter orange , and some i have shot wearing camo head to toe, and i have shot a few wearing normal clothes blue jeans and t- shirts , i think if you are very still and dont move and your scent is controlled you will have deer walk as close as 5 feet away, i only had 2 do that , but i dont think color really matters, i have always worn camo cause thats what mt grandpa started wearing , and i wanted to be just like him so it stuck with me , plus it gives me an excuse to go shopping every year, but you do bring up a good point

[TheCream]

I'm no biologist, but I am convinced they see something from a standard red IR glow. From my experience running some IR trail cameras, especially in video modes, deer do look at the camera. Their reactions vary from basically no reaction, all the way to running away. Do they see it in red? Does it appear white or some other color to deer? I do not know that, I just am concluding they see something. Here are a few examples.

Here is a no-reaction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOmVxYA0jwQ

He looks at the camera, or at least towards it, but has no reaction.

Here is the polar opposite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llc9aqlIuWU

Clearly he did NOT like what he saw, and that was with the same camera in the same video mode! :yikes:

The "tuck tail and run" reaction is rare from what I have seen with a standard IR camera, but I have seen it a few times. The typical reaction is to look at the camera, maybe stare at it for a few seconds, but not react. There are now some new IR cams, like a BEC model, that have a completely invisible IR array. Obviously deer should have no reaction to those types of cameras unless they just physically see the camera or smell something on it.

[redcloud102]

I'm no biologist, but I am convinced they see something from a standard red IR glow. From my experience running some IR trail cameras, especially in video modes, deer do look at the camera. Their reactions vary from basically no reaction, all the way to running away. Do they see it in red? Does it appear white or some other color to deer? I do not know that, I just am concluding they see something. Here are a few examples.

Here is a no-reaction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOmVxYA0jwQ

He looks at the camera, or at least towards it, but has no reaction.

Here is the polar opposite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llc9aqlIuWU

Clearly he did NOT like what he saw, and that was with the same camera in the same video mode! :yikes:

The "tuck tail and run" reaction is rare from what I have seen with a standard IR camera, but I have seen it a few times. The typical reaction is to look at the camera, maybe stare at it for a few seconds, but not react. There are now some new IR cams, like a BEC model, that have a completely invisible IR array. Obviously deer should have no reaction to those types of cameras unless they just physically see the camera or smell something on it.

I know the IR light would be a white light. Here is how I came to know what color it is. Take a video camera and record yourself pointing a TV remote at it pushing buttons. Just looking at a remote you don't see anything but point it at a video camera and it shows up white. But from what the research was saying is that their peak vision should be at the 496 nm and most of the IR cams use LED in the range of 850 + nm. So I would think no matter what color it is showing that it would be out of it's visual range. So now what I thought I knew is gone and have to start all over again :)

[redcloud102]

I happened to find an article written By Brian Murphy that explains a little better of what deer can and can't see. Hope this helps Illustrate it better then I did :)

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/general/news/story?page=c_fea_qdma_what_deer_see

[troyjen30]

some of the reason the deer may be looking at the camera is the noise. Not sure what cam DeerFarmer is using but some cams make a "clunk" sound when taking a pic.

[redcloud102]

Alright I'm done with this thread. Because after reading some more info I have come to the conclusion the study done was BS. I think the research was a joke. Why you ask. I think the Atsko Company paid those so called researchers to find what they wanted them to find. Also to just get people to stop crying about Hunter Orange. So back to what we already knew: Sit down, sit still, don't make a sound, wear camouflage and hold on for the ride.