Backcountry ethical question - should you wear bright colors or earth tones?

[SWScouter]

One thing that hasn't been brought up but I think is worth mentioning, is that pictures of people outdoors, such as the scouts, tend to be much nicer when they are wearing bright clothing.

[Tampa Turtle]

Guess where?

 

My boys call that a 'tent ghetto'.

[vumbi]

In case there is any interest, here is a nice paper on the dichromatic nature of spectral sensitivity in deer:

http://www.neitzvision.com/content/publications/1994-jacobs-electrophys_of_white-tailed_deer-jcompphys.pdf

 

One rule of thumb for nature is that if an animal has bright colors, there is a good chance that their species has color vision. If they are drab, they usually don't. This is not a strict rule because spectral sensitivity is highly variable but as the paper notes, most ungulates are similar.

Primates are unusual in our spectral sensitivity because most mammals don't see what we see. That said, strictly speaking, color doesn't actually exist. It is just a perception, the way we sense different wavelengths.

Edited May 31, 2016 by vumbi