Animal species,and eye color, is there any difference?

[the noobie]

I thought I had been told that: When the eyes reflect

If the eyes are yellow its a cat (big and litttle)
Green its a dog (coyote etc)
Orange/yellow its a deer/elk etc


IS there any truth behind this?

Reason Im asking is because a few nights ago it was about 2AM and I was sitting downstairs reading a book by the fire. The house was dark except for the fire light and our one little wiener dog just went crazy, he ran to the window and started barking and carrying on. Scared the living $^@! out of me and with a quick flip of the porch light I didnt see anything.

I got worried we may have someone poking around the house so I ran upstairs and grabbed the best flashlight in the house (small Fenix LD 20) and started scanning the hill side behind the house, it doesnt light up great but its good enough to see reflections. To my suprise about 50 yards up the hill was a pair of the darndest red/orange eyes Ive ever seen.

They just sat there and looked for a few minutes. I ran in and grabbed the binos and to my best judgement looking with naked eye and through binos the eyes were a good 6 or so inches apart. I went downstairs again to get the parents and went back up stairs and the eyes were still in the same spot still looking at the house. They finally after 10+ minutes started moving and just be the way it moved I think it was an elk but I want to know if eye color can tell you what kind of animal it is?

We have confirmed cases of deer,elk,wolf,bear,mtn lion,moose, and other smaller predators right in the area. I was scanning looking for more eyes thinking it may have been wolf but there was one set and it just stared at the house, even when I turned the flashlight to "tactical strobe" mode it just stared.

While Im here can anyone recomend a good light that will light up and allow us to positively ID something up to 100 yards or so? This isnt the first time weve had stuff creeping around the house. We have a large spotlight that works great except for the fact that it runs off of cigarette lighter outlets.

 

[the impactzone]

you can get a million CD power spot light with internal battery for $25 or so at bass pro that will charge off a wall or car. I have one for spoting my cattle from the house

 

[kel]

someone else will chime in with a more scientific answer but my experience has been you are pretty much going to get some shade of the color of light you are using to shine at the animal.

I've noticed that bobcats and alligators seem to have the most reflection of animals in my area.

Either get what Phil recommended or go by Wallyworld and get one of the Brinkman rechargeable lights for around $40. 3 million candlepower should easily take care of 100 yards.

There is no easy formula for telling which animal it is at night which is why you see so many posts on here about what light can identify at what range and what light can pick up eyes at what range. If you want to spook the kids make sure you get a light that you can also throw on a red filter. Red eyes in the night are what makes it fun.

 

[SkyPup]

You cannot identify different species of animals based on whatever color of light you happen to see reflecting back from their retinas or corneas.

For one thing, every single different light source is going to produce a different spectrum of visible light to begin with, totally annihilating your assumptions. The angle of incidence of whatever light onto the eye also will reflect different color light back depending on which actual eye structures are being illuminated.

The only light you are ever going to see reflected back at your from any animals eyes is the specific wavelengths of light which were NOT totally absorbed by the animals retina, cornea, and lens, tapetum lucidum.

Bottom line is you cannot identify animals at night based on what eye colors you see....