Here is a great reference article on how animals perceive color (camo, hunter orange, etc.) that is actually fairly easy to read and understand. Covers research on ungulates as well as predators. Towards the end they are pushing their products to hunters but the basic article is excellent. Hope you all find it helpful.
http://www.atsko.com/articles/...imals-see-smell.html

The great Howard Hill once wrote or said something along the lines of the Good Lord seeing fit to make the bobcat plain tan, and him not seeming to go hungry too much...

It is an interesting read but our success ultimately always boils down to minimizing movement and being aware of wind direction!

Think about how often you have failed to see monochromatic game just until it twitched an ear or took a step. I agree with Howard Hill...the best camo is being still. I have even had deer certainly smell me (from a distance of a few feet) and refuse to bolt because they just could not figure out what this funny smellling rock was.

Agree re the movement.


Of all the military principles of camouflage,
after movement I would add that Shine is a dead giveaway to animals as it is so unnatural.

During the late 80's, I did a research project on developing a model to estimate the number of bighorn sheep that we miss on helicopter surveys. We looked at a wide range of variables that affected whether or not we saw sheep. They included, in sun vs shade, above, even with or below the helicopter, in the canyon or on flats above, standing or moving and group size among others. The most significant was whether they were standing or moving with whether they were in the canyon or on the flats a somewhat distant second. Before the study, most experienced survey biologist thought we were seeing 90 to 95% of the sheep. In fact we found that we were only seeing 65%.

465H&H

i dunno but my perception of the camouflaged animals in the malls, isn't very good

Yes , the eye, yours or the animal's is attracted to motion .
I saw a list of things to do when turkey hunting .The last line - Keep Still, Keep Still, Keep Still !! How right they were !

I think of Fred Bear when I see these threads. So much game taken "from his hind legs" while wearing a fedora and plaid, and no wheels on his bow. Not possible, eh?

Apart from being still, neutral coloured clothig. If you want to see how neutral your clothing is, towards dusk, hang it up against shrubbery. You should get a good indication, also, check how much shine is given off, especially from the effects of ironing.