Recently I was on a deer hunt, where a fellow hunter wearing blue jeans and blue jacket made of silent fabric, using proper scent control and being upwind was always seen by the deer and didn’t have the chance to make a single shot. While I was skinning my deer, he approached me and was wondering what the problem was that day. Well! Let's have a look at the deer senses and try to find out.

 

 

Vision

 

Deer see in 2D and have monocular vision (apart from humans where we have binocular and see with both our eyes), which means that they have larger field of view 310 degrees. Their blind spot is only 50 degrees, compared to humans we have field of view 115 degrees and blind spot 245 degrees. Another important fact is that the deer’s eyes are on the both sides of the head. That’s why they can easily watch what’s happening around them. 

 

Their retina has cones allowing them to see colors and rods that help them see shapes, movements, darkness and light. Deer see in blue better than we do, slightly yellow colors and UV light. Bingo! The reason my friend was seen all the time was that he was wearing blue jeans and jacket making him easy for the deer to recognize.

They don't see red and orange, instead these colors appear as a faded grey to them, that's why hunters can wear orange during hunting.

There is a rule for the deer's vision -  20/100, which means what deer can see at 20m human can see at 100m. 

During night deer have a good vision too, due to the higher ratio between rods to cones, 10 times more than humans.

 

 

        

 

 

Hearing

 

Hearing of this game is not much different than ours. Deer can hear slightly lower sounds and with slightly higher frequency limit - up to 30 000 hertz compared to our 20 000 hertz. What is important to mention is that they can move their ears in order to localize the sound without moving their head.

 

Smell

 

Their most developed sense. Deer’s nose has almost 300 million scent receptors, while dogs have 220 million and we have only…5 million. It is believed that deer can smell you from 2km. Also they can sort up to 6 different smells at once. 

 

Tip

 

Avoid wearing blue or yellow clothing while hunting. To become invisible paramount is to hide yourself in order to break your silhouette. Could be between the bushes, branches etc. What does a deer see, whether you wear camouflage or single color clothing? Your shape.