I have asked many people but havent always got the same answer, but i want to know what colors can a deer see if they see any at

[ufc2196]

I have asked many people but havent always got the same answer, but i want to know what colors can a deer see if they see any at all?

[pineywoods]

All the literature I've read says that deer are effectively color blind, with indications that they may have a sensitivity to blue. I've been hunting and watching them for well over fifty years now and my conclusion is that you have to worry a lot more about motion than color. Witness the fact that you can wear blaze orange and have a deer stare straight at you, and if you don't move, won't make you out.

If I can ever perfect the Vulcan Mind-Meld, I'll try it on a deer and see what it really sees, but until then I'll have to rely on the scientific types who count rods and cones in a deer's eye for my technical info.

[Bo]

pineywoods is correct; the make up of the deer's eye is such that the distribution of rods and cones in the deer's eye lends itself to superior night vision over a human. The tradeoff is the cells that allow then to see well at night, do not allow discrimination of color to be perceived. But then, deer do not need to see colors in order to survive in the wild; they only NEED to see movement which they can very well.
We cannot see well at night; we don't really need to, but we have been granted the privilege to see various colors. That is because the cells that allow us to see color work best in daylight...
And you may have noticed that men cannot see as many colors as women.
Don't believe me? Ask any woman about some of the colors of the clothes that she wears, she will give you names like taupe and ecru that, I am sorry, I just don't see...
;-)

[6phunter]

I believe it's like watching an old black and white television,the lighter colors stand out more whereas hunter orange doesn't stand out like yellow would.As Piney mentioned ,movement is what gets you busted in the deerwoods ,and BO correctly describes why they lack ability to see colors.

[PAShooter]

I think I read a study that deer can detect some UV rays. This was about 15 years ago. But I feel deer depend on their nose,ears,eyes in that order. Stay still and break up your background and deer have difficuly in "seeing" what you are.