Are deer color blind?

McGruff

Yes, it is generally believed deer are color-blind. Oct 05 00, 5:53 PM

Master_Algie

"Deer are essentially red-green color blind like some humans. Their color vision is limited to the short (blue) and middle (green) wavelength colors. As a result, deer likely can distinguish blue from red, but not green from red, or orange from red. Therefore, it appears that hunters would be equally suited wearing green, red, or orange clothing but perhaps slightly disadvantaged wearing blue." A detailed discussion can be found here: http://www.qdma.com/articles/details.asp?id=48 This question has been posed regarding deer a lot for the knowledge of hunters. While all hunters agree that deer have an amazing ability to detect movement, the consensus regarding their ability to see color is far less unanimous. While the debate over deer vision is not new, it has intensified in recent years as more states have required hunters to wear blaze orange clothing while hunting. Many hunters are concerned that wearing blaze orange reduces their chances of success. Another topic of debate is camouflage clothing. During the past decade, there has been a tremendous increase in the number and variety of camouflage patterns available to hunters. This has occurred despite little knowledge of what game animals actually see. Dec 15 06, 4:34 PM