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Old 01-27-2005 | 04:34 PM
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Strut&Rut
Nontypical Buck
 
Joined: Feb 2003
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From: SW Michigan
Default RE: I Gota Problem

In short reply...

We (humans/primates) possess trichromatic vision.

Deer (and most other mammals) possess dichromatic vision. They see in shades of gray, black & white, and see mostly blues and yellows. Dr. Karl Miller and some colleagues published a nice paper on deer vision, and presented it at the annual SE meeting a number of years ago. The deer can see lower wavelengths, and in essence can "detect" UV. However, orange and red merely appear yellow to a deer. So, a bright flourescent orange coat will look like a giant lemon to a deer---but standing in a pale yellow cornfield---he probably won't notice the difference. 20 feet up a tree with a B&W, blue background---yeah, he's gonna notice that giant lemon in an oak tree that drops turd sized acorns.

Now, as for turkeys. I have never seen anything published about turkeys seeing into the UV field. They do have, from a few papers I have perused, quadchromatic vision. This is made possible by 1) their optic nerve occupies approximately 75% of their brain power, and 2) they have extra sensitive conical oils in the eye/lens which allows them to see in greater color contrast. Makes sense when you consider what a bird eats---they have to be able to detect in an instant whether caterpillar A or caterpillar B is toxic, dependent on a single mm speck of red on its butt...

As an FYI, I wash all of my camo in hydrogen peroxide, no-scent shampoo, and borax. Works great, with no smell and almost no fading. The problem with "regular" laundry detergents, is the amount of phosphates, which will eat the multiple dye pattern of camo, resulting in the dreaded "fading"...
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