Can coyotes see in color?

Originally Posted By: Nate SmithI know that a lot of the areas around where I hunt will be hit hard by upland game hunters in a couple of weeks and I'm wondering if I should wear blaze orange if I go out during that time to look for coyotes. If I'm upland hunting, I'll have the orange on, but if I'm coyote hunting I'm not planning on it; reason being that I've never seen any of you guys do it. Cheesy reason, but it's what I'm going with for now. So I'm wondering, do coyotes see in color? If I wear orange at that time, will I stick out like a sore thumb? I've got a "ghillie-lookin-suit" that I wear otherwise that has NO brown in it whatsoever. Just curious what you guys think and if coyotes actually would see the orange.

On a side note.... I guess I could just give it a rest during that timeframe.

google charles shawley and read his ebook on coyote vision, this will change your view on camo and scent covers.
 
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Originally Posted By: Evil_LurkerOriginally Posted By: Chupathingy I don't know the full spectrum of colors that coyotes/canines can see, but I do remember Yellowhammer once saying that the color BLUE is one of the few colors that they CAN see.

When it comes to the biology of critters, I trust Yellowhammer until I have definitive proof of my own to dispute it. Afterall, it is what he does for a living and went to school for.


Chupa

I also saw a study on deer that claims thay can see into the UV spectrum farther than humans, so those additives in some detergents that makes your "whits whiter" (and which is actually a alight blue tint) allows an animal to see UV relections from your clothes washed in it.

I'm not sure whether that's true or not, but I switched over to washing my hunting gear in Woolite without any whiteners.

Whether a deer and a coyote see the same spectrum of color I have no idea, though.
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It is true Evil. I've crawled up on a ridgeline of a foothill. To have a local bedded coyote peg me as I was wearing all white on an all white snow covered hill top. I won't say they knew I was a human. But they detected me regardless. Et fixated on my coordinance. Staring long & hard, as to whether they took off or not.

Washing your "whites" in detergent/bleaching soap is a bad idea. As some coyotes will note the difference between your whites & snow cover white.

As for what a canine can see/detect or not. Our current dog can pick out bright colored tennis balls, laying amongst Fall multi-colored leaves on the ground. Sometimes she can pick it out quickly other times not. I believe to some extent, she also picks out shape vs color difference.

We once owned a German Shepherd that was not as keen at picking out color differences. But for picking out shape from the background colors, he was quite good at. ie; A brown cottintail rabbit sitting in front of a brown brushpile.

Two different breeds of domestic dogs. Had two different degrees of picking out shapes & colors.

As for what a coyote can detect. I'm convinced the locals (specifically) the older adult territorial pr. Are quite good at picking out shapes & colors variances. That do NOT belong in their territory. After a couple of yrs, the adult locals know their territory quite well.
 
Originally Posted By: Chupathingy I don't know the full spectrum of colors that coyotes/canines can see, but I do remember Yellowhammer once saying that the color BLUE is one of the few colors that they CAN see.

When it comes to the biology of critters, I trust Yellowhammer until I have definitive proof of my own to dispute it. Afterall, it is what he does for a living and went to school for.


Chupa

All canines are absolutely positively 100% Red-Green Colorblind, they only have the two cone opsins and neural circuitry to visualize the wavelengths Blue through Yellow, which does NOT include any Green or any Red. It is physically and biologically impossible for them to see Red or Green.

Dog%20Vision.jpg

dog_color_vision.png
 
If coyotes do see black and white, sort of like me unfortunately, orange will look white to them. So orange will stick out like a sore thumb without snow. When they say they cannot see a color what they should say is that it looks different to them than you, or more properly, they cannot distinguish a color.

I am blue yellow and red green colorblind. I see some color but just not the range of colors most can see. Wear your orange while moving. Hang some camo orange above you when calling if it makes you feel better. Just know that it will stick out to the coyote in one way or another. But obviously your safety is more important.....

There are times of e day when you can see the blue spectrum created by detergents on your own.

 
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Not to pick a fight, but all the studies are at best, theoretical. Before you jump on that, you have to understand. When testing is done on humans, we can tell them exactly what we see. the test for animals are based on what we know about human eyes, but we don't know for sure that is correct. The general hypothesis is that coyotes see in shades of grey, so we assume that an orange color is seen in a whiter shade. The human face would be white while red would be darker grey. Cats and dogs will chase a laser light across the floor, is this the color or the movement. I have had coyotes walk within 5 feet of me while hunting deer, wearing blue jeans, a red and white flannel shirt and nothing covering my face without even noticing. Whether or not they see the colors, to me, is not as important as the movement. Even the UV concept that animals see UV as blue is questionable when a coyote or fax can walk right over your legs and never notice you. Even when you know you did nothing to cover any UV in washing. Just my observation.
 
Coyote's (dogs) are not completely color blind. However, they do not have the same color vision as humans and it has been noted they cannot tell the difference between red and green. The reason for this is that there are only two kinds of colour receptors in the retinas of their eyes. Humans have three kinds of colour cells, with three different recptor molecules sensitive to blue, greenish-yellow, and red, dogs only have recptors for yellow and greenish-blue.

Canine eyes also lack another human trait the 'fovea'. an area especially dense with detailing-sensing cells. As a result, their detail vision is not as good as ours. But they make up for this by having much better night vision and greater sensitivity to movement.

Coyote's have an acute sense of hearing and smell and the challenge is to lure him into your kill-zone. And precautions in limiting human sent and activity must be observed.
Above all... Don't eat a bowl of beans the evening before a Coyote Hunt!

Additionally, they are keen to: Smell, Hearing and Movement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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