By John Goodspeed Special to the San Antonio Express-News Some hunters seeking a trophy white-tailed buck turn a blind eye when it comes to how deer use their senses. Sure, they know deer smell better than people -- well, at least better than guys who have been in camp a few days. But we're talking senses, not personal hygiene. Some hunters also think a deer's sight and hearing are superior. Their vision is not necessarily better, though -- just different. That's because deer see blue better, especially in low light. Miller should know. Or, as Karl Miller succinctly puts it, "Any hunter who wears blue jeans is an idiot." The professor of wildlife management at the University of Georgia's D.B. Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources has been researching deer senses for three decades. Of the five senses, deer are flat-out superior only with smell. Knowing how a deer sees, hears and smells can help a hunter outwit a wily buck. Camouflage clothing manufacturers cash in on hunters wanting to blend in with the environment. Details on the how and why came from Miller, who gave a presentation before the Texas Deer Association's Premium Whitetail Deer Auction at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo in February. Camo, though, is not perfect if washed with a detergent that has brighteners. Deer may pick up some of that ultraviolet luminescence. He talked about rods, cones, photo pigments and retinas. What all that boils down to is: Deer can see 18 times better than us at night. You can't sneak up to a blind in the dark without being seen. They can't see red. They see it as gray, and that's why hunter orange (right) is used -- so we can see other hunters. A deer does not have 20/20 vision. It's more like 20/75, he said. While humans focus on a specific spot, deer focus on a wider area but cannot distinguish detail. Unlike a human eye, which constantly is in motion, a deer's eye is pretty much stationary. A deer moves its head instead. "They see something, but until that something moves, they don't know what it is," Miller said. "They have it all over us when it comes to movement." The placement of a deer's eyes on the skull means they have 320 degrees of peripheral vision while people have 90 degrees. "So you can sneak up behind a deer," Miller said. Their rectangle- shaped pupil provides a horizontal view while ours is round, giving an advantage to hunters in elevated blinds and trees. As for hearing, we're equal. "A study showed that deer and humans hear about the same frequencies from low to high -- almost identical," he said. "Other studies showed they can hear a little better in higher frequencies, but they can't hear ultrasonic. "Those deer whistles you put on a vehicle so they hear you coming don't work." A deer is in the woods 24/7 and knows the normal sounds. So while being quiet is important, deer do not have super-human hearing. The most important sense for a deer's survival is smell. "How good is a deer's nose? How far can he smell a human? It depends on many things -- how much we stink, how far away, the weather conditions and the individual deer," Miller said. A deer's sense of smell, he said, is about the same as a dog's -- millions of times better than a human's. So archery enthusiasts, sticklers about body and clothing odors because they have to be so close to a deer for a shot, are definitely on the right track. And that makes them more welcome around camp, too. John Goodspeed is a freelance writer and photographer. E-mail him at john@johngoodspeed.com. |
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