Do Hunters Really Need to Wear Camouflage? Here Are the Colors Deer Can See
BY Herschel Smith
1 week, 3 days ago
In What Colors Can Deer See (and also here), we discussed cammo and colors deer can see. ODL follows up its own reporting with even more.
The University of Georgia’s Deer Lab has been on the cutting edge of most of this research, and Outdoor Life recently caught up with Blaise Newman, a PhD student at UGA who is studying how deer vision influences their behavior. Her research in the Deer Lab is being sponsored by Sitka gear, and it looks specifically at how whitetail deer use their eyes to avoid predation as they move through different landscapes.
“What I focus on is understanding how deer’s vision helps them meet their ecological needs—how their physiology helps them meet their basic needs and functions,” Newman says. “Sitka funded this project in an effort to advance everything we know about deer vision. As a camo company, it makes sense. They want to know how they can make their camouflage less detectable by deer.”
Hunters used to believe that deer were unable to see color, and that they only viewed the world in shades of gray. We can now say with certainty that deer can see color— just not in the same way that humans do because their eyeballs are physiologically different than ours.
BLUF, don’t worry about red and orange. Do worry about lack of pattern that just becomes a one-color blob. Don’t wear blue.
On August 31, 2026 at 1:20 pm, X said:
“don’t worry about red and orange.”
Yep, that’s so other humans can see you and not shoot you.
“Do worry about lack of pattern that just becomes a one-color blob.”
Yep, agree. There’s nothing in the woods that is a one color unbroken blob. Nothing really blue, either. Remember that if you’re hunting in jeans…
On September 1, 2026 at 10:01 am, Conan said:
I snuck up on several fawns within ten feet in the park in treebark pants and realtree shirt.
Treebark is my favorite fall camo along with Swiss alpenflage.
Once cutting through the woods to get to another subdivision sector saw a buck clear fast moving stream in one leap.
On September 1, 2026 at 11:44 am, jrg said:
I’ve always felt that being motionless has been far more hidden than colors. I do agree that large single colored objects (other than green) are not commonly seen in the woods.
On September 3, 2026 at 6:41 pm, Frank Nobody said:
Fun fact… deer eyeballs rotate. The slit pupil stays parallel to the ground. It’s horizontal when they look forward, but rotates to stay horizontal when they are feeding/facing down.
Something to do with better resolution in the horizontal plane, I expect.
Anyway, I’ve got pictures of the same deer in both positions. Sure enough… her eyeballs rotate. You have to be very close to see this of course, and the light has to be right. But it’s true.