Camo and coyote vision - an exploration (pic heavy)

[RolHammer]

The various camo threads lately, paired with my recent interest in varmint hunting, got me to thinking about what I should be considering when kitting myself out in the clothing department when going out for coyotes this fall. I did a little research and thought I'd post what I found here to help others with their camo selection.

In a three part series in Predator Xtreme by Charles Shawley, a dual B.Sc. in physics and physical chemistry and Ph.D. in materials science, as well as avid varmint hunter, provides an illuminating treatise on the topic. Shawley lays out the anatomy and physiology of the coyote eye, explaining how the eyes of this crepuscular hunter see things in our world.

Predator Xtreme, Oct 2008 - Part 1/3 (click on 'The Eyes Have It, p78)
Predator Xtreme, Dec 2008 - Part 2/3
Predator Xtreme, Feb 2009 - Part 3/3

In short, because of their dawn/dusk hunting evolution, dogs have a much greater density of rods in their retina giving them much better vision than humans in low light conditions. That capability comes at a cost, however, with canids being dichromatic (seeing in two colours - blue & yellow, with two populations of cones) in comparison with trichromatic vision in humans (red, green & blue). So, the ROYGBIV of our visual spectrum maps onto YYYWBBB for coyotes (R-red, O-orange, Y-yellow, G-green, B-glue, I-indigo, V-violet, W-white).



Intrigued by the implications Shawley brings to light in his articles, I decided to try this out for myself, searching out and trying a couple of 'dog eyesight' apps on my phone: Zoomorph and Dog Vision

I took various pictures with the camera on my phone, then took photos of the same scene with each of the two apps. Picked a mixture of various backgrounds with a range of colours and textures for comparison. I culminate with some pictures of my son wearing camouflage in some undergrowth near our house for comparison.


Phone camera:


Dog Vision:


Zoomorph:





Phone camera:


Dog Vision:


Zoomorph:






Phone camera:


Dog Vision:


Zoomorph:






Phone camera:


Dog Vision:


Zoomorph:

[RolHammer]

Phone camera:


Dog Vision:


Zoomorph:





Phone camera:


Dog Vision:


Zoomorph:



Phone camera:


Dog Vision:


Zoomorph:



Phone camera:


Dog Vision:


Zoomorph:





Phone camera:


Dog Vision:


Zoomorph:

[RolHammer]

And, finally, what does all this mean in regards to how camo would appear to a coyote? My son, dressed in some camo stuff, standing in the underbrush in some woods near our house.

Phone camera:


Dog Vision:


Zoomorph:



So, having an idea how real world images & colours map into a coyote's vision using these apps as a guide, I hope this helps you decide what kind of camouflage you will make in your coyote hunting.

[jkav]

Pictures notwithstanding, I was deer hunting on Sunday when I spotted a coyote 70 yards ahead of me in some trees. I was standing in the middle of a small but completely open field.

I crouched down, and a few seconds later the coyote spotted me - then trotted directly towards me to see what I was. Came to within 15-20 yards before feeling uneasy enough to shy away.

I was wearing an ASAT leafy suit. Pretty great camo for ~$130 (jacket, pants, and head cover).

[RolHammer]

Oh yeah, something I didn't mention but Shawley lays on pretty clearly and the Zoomorph app mentions in its 'Info' section for the 'dog' filter is that because of the tapetum lucidum, the reflective layer at the back of the eye, as well as the density of retinal cones, coyote vision isn't terribly crisp.

The Dog Vision app gives you some filters to capture the 'night vision' and 'visual acuity' in photos. I tried to capture those, but they either over-expose the image (all white-yellow) or make it blurry.

I get the impression that coyotes from all this that coyotes don't have terribly good vision when it comes to static objects in nature. Motion, however, is something they're particularly well set up to notice. Additionally - and outside the scope of this discussion but true nonetheless - coyotes have many times the olfactory capability of humans. So, if you were crouched motionless with the wind in your favour, I would expect a coyote could very literally walk right up to you and not be aware of the danger it was in until too late.

[RolHammer]

Originally Posted by jkav

I was wearing an ASAT leafy suit.

I can see why he would have had trouble seeing you.



Where did you buy yours, jkav?

[tikka250]

Interesting. Great writeup

[Burbotism]

Thanks for sharing!

[horse_men]

Great information, I'm color blind to a fairly high degree and to be perfectly honest I cannot see much difference in the pictures! Kind of neat to know I can see as well as a coyote lol.

[cfinn]

pretty cool info, thanks for the post

[Stinky Buffalo]

Great write up! Thank you.

[waterninja]

Well, you certainly did a lot of research, and went through a lot of trouble to get all those pics. Makes for an interesting read, but in the end movement and wind direction will still be my main focus when yote hunting.
Also wonder how the differences in thier eyesight is affected when everything is covered in snow? I'll be looking for some fresh pics. from you in January. Don't make your son stand too long in 20 below wearing snow camo. lol

[RolHammer]

Originally Posted by horse_men

Great information, I'm color blind to a fairly high degree and to be perfectly honest I cannot see much difference in the pictures! Kind of neat to know I can see as well as a coyote lol.

It's interesting you bring that up! I didn't consider this, but certain types of colour blindness involve dichromacy - in effect, making you coyote-like in your vision. For example, if you were protanopic (lacking long wavelength cones) or deuteranopic (lacking medium wavelength cones) you'd have trouble distinguishing green-yellow-red and you'd see this:



Seems fairly coyote-like from what I gather from Shawley's articles.

Going just by the statistics though, there's a ~6 times greater likely that you are deuteranomalic, with a mutated form of the photopsin (visual pigment) that governs medium wavelength (green) light perception.

However it shakes out though, if those photos all looked the same to you, you'd probably be a great 'coyote camoflage' assessor for your hunting buddies!

[horse_men]

Originally Posted by RolHammer

It's interesting you bring that up! I didn't consider this, but certain types of colour blindness involve dichromacy - in effect, making you coyote-like in your vision. For example, if you were protanopic (lacking long wavelength cones) or deuteranopic (lacking medium wavelength cones) you'd have trouble distinguishing green-yellow-red and you'd see this:



Seems fairly coyote-like from what I gather from Shawley's articles.

Going just by the statistics though, there's a ~6 times greater likely that you are deuteranomalic, with a mutated form of the photopsin (visual pigment) that governs medium wavelength (green) light perception.

However it shakes out though, if those photos all looked the same to you, you'd probably be a great 'coyote camoflage' assessor for your hunting buddies!

It is funny you say that, it is often weird how I can pick out animals quicker than others even though I can't see the full spectrum. This seems especially true at near dark. I've wondered if the colour blind had anything to do with how I perceived objects. Seems as though there may be something to it! Still a pain when the kids think it's funny to play "what colour is this" with dad.

[jkav]

Originally Posted by RolHammer

I can see why he would have had trouble seeing you. Where did you buy yours, jkav?

I got mine at Jim-Bows Edmonton. I believe that they're trying to clear out their remaining ASAT stock at 30% off, and that they have a couple of leafy suits left. You might give them a shout.

Cheers,

Jeff

[Chuck_Wagon]

The human vision/coyote vision color chart shows that perhaps the greens may be a lot whiter looking than your dog vision images indicate, especially the bright green dumpster. It may look much whiter?

[nekred]

In humans we have 10 degrees of clear vision (what you can read with) and 178 degrees of peripheral vision, peripheral vision is triggered by contrast or movement.....

What is it for coyotes?

[RolHammer]

Originally Posted by waterninja

...but in the end movement and wind direction will still be my main focus when yote hunting...

Oh, completely! In fact, that was kind of what I was thinking that doing this would demonstrate - spendy high-dollar camo probably really doesn't matter. In fact, I suspect that if you were to wear blaze camo - if such a thing even exists - that you'd be OK so long as the background wasn't too lightly coloured.

As to the wind part, hand in hand with this I did some research on scent remediation apparel/soaps/sprays/schtuff. I'm gonna post that in a separate thread in a bit, but basically yep - doesn't appear there's any escaping the pooch nose or the wind.

Originally Posted by waterninja

Also wonder how the differences in thier eyesight is affected when everything is covered in snow? I'll be looking for some fresh pics. from you in January. Don't make your son stand too long in 20 below wearing snow camo. lol

I'm interested in this too. I definitely will update the thread with winter pics too. I'll be kind to the little guy while doing so tho!

[RolHammer]

Originally Posted by jkav

I got mine at Jim-Bows Edmonton.

Thanks Jeff! Definitely will give them a look.

[RolHammer]

Originally Posted by Chuck_Wagon

The human vision/coyote vision color chart shows that perhaps the greens may be a lot whiter looking than your dog vision images indicate, especially the bright green dumpster. It may look much whiter?

Thanks for bringing that up, Chuck_Wagon. Yeah, that surprised me too. From the article, greens should map onto white or lightish grey shades. They come out way darker than you'd expect in most instances. Not sure what to say there.

I didn't post them, but I took some pics of clumps of light green ornamental grass-like plants. They're quite white. I'll try to get those up today for comparison.

[RolHammer]

Originally Posted by nekred

In humans we have 10 degrees of clear vision (what you can read with) and 178 degrees of peripheral vision, peripheral vision is triggered by contrast or movement.....

What is it for coyotes?

I dunno, I didn't come across anything along those lines in my research. It's a good question though - lemme google around with it & see what I can come up with...

[KGB]

In a middle of the winter when it is snow everywhere, the best camo I found is pure white. Got it at WSS when it was on clearance 70% off...

[bruceba]

Well that's interesting thanks, and by the way it took me quite a while to see the difference but when I did it was so obvious. Somebody took the hose reel away.

Originally Posted by RolHammer

Dog Vision:


Zoomorph:

[RolHammer]

Originally Posted by Chuck_Wagon

The human vision/coyote vision color chart shows that perhaps the greens may be a lot whiter looking than your dog vision images indicate, especially the bright green dumpster. It may look much whiter?

OK, here's those photos I was talking about. Green shows up a bit whiter on these.


Phone camera:



Dog Vision:



Zoomorph:

[RolHammer]

Originally Posted by nekred

In humans we have 10 degrees of clear vision (what you can read with) and 178 degrees of peripheral vision, peripheral vision is triggered by contrast or movement.....

What is it for coyotes?

OK, here are some links I found. They don't directly address the issue of width of clear vision, but give a general idea of it.

http://www.petsdoc.org/eyes-of-your-dog.php
Quotes from the link:
" The wider-set eyes of dogs have less overlap and less binocular vision (thus less depth perception). Dogs’ depth perception is best when they look straight ahead.
Humans with perfect eyesight are said to have 20/20 vision. This means that we can distinguish letters or objects at a distance of 20 feet. Dogs typically have 20/75 vision. What this means is that they must be 20 feet from an object to see it as well as a human standing 75 feet away. Certain breeds have better visual acuity."



https://artanddogblog.wordpress.com/...ility-fanatic/
Good article generally. I thought this was closest to an answer to your question:

"Based on “binocular overlap,” depth perception is greatest when a dog is looking straight ahead vs. using peripheral vision. This does not include the area blocked by the nose, in most breeds, when dogs look below horizontal."

An image, as seen by us:


Same image, as seen by a dog (doesn't look like the colours have been mapped but they capture the rest of what it probably looks like to a dog):




Canine vision, from a veterinary perspective:
http://veterinaryvision.com/wp-conte...nDogsPart1.pdf