What colours to wear when one doesn't want to disturb the wildlife

[Martyn]

Just stick to dull shades of green, yellow, olive, khaki, brown and shades of grey and you can wear pretty much whatever pattern you want ...or not. Dont wear blue and bright orange is good if there are people around with guns.


Oh and dont wash your kit in Daz.

 

[Martyn]

A few days ago I was on nightshift at the hospital. About 4am I went into me Landy for a ciggy break. The window was down, it was well lit and I was wearing a white uniform. The odd porter that passed by 30 yards away, nodded at me. A bit later, I was contemplating me naval when a fox walked within 4 feet of the door, completely oblivious to me. I blew him a kiss and he nearly left his skin.

Point is, my shape wasn't like a person-thing to him, it was like a landrover-thing, it wasn't moving and it wasn't making any noise, so he ignored it. Wont matter what kind of camo you are wearing, if you are standing on top of a hill, making the sillhouette of a big human-shape-thing.

 

[Hawkeye The Noo]

About the whole orange colour thing, as was mentioned birds have a broad colour spectrum; deer and other animals listen to the birds. I would be more worried about setting off bird alarms than plain green or DPM. The orange thing makes no sense to me apart from being seen by trigger happy hunters. Orange is seen by birds and deer listen to the bird language hence if the birds can see you then the deer know you are there.

Jamie

 

[Carcajou Garou]

We are conditioned to associate orange with hunters, years ago it was red, animals won't use that logic. You give animals way to much human logic whe thinking about camo, same as fishing lures what sell is most how well it looks in the store not always how the fish perceive it). Hunter gatherers used natural colors (animal skins, local leafed branches for millenia way before our modern camo even was thought of, worked for them). Animals use a combinations of movement, smells, sounds, sight (background blending and shape) and intent (I never look directly at my prey until I am ready, I don't hunt hungry, I wash/smudge with local vegetation etc...).

 

[Martyn]

Thanks CG.

There you go Old Skool Scout, you dont need camo and you have it first hand from an Iroquois Mohawk native Canadian. Works for me.

 

[Jambo]

Isn't it the old version? No matter really, just curious - I hate the stuff personally and havent worn it since I was in the army cadets.

Nope, afaik it's a generic camo pattern used on cheaper no name gear mostly, or was years ago. Stopped bothering myself really when I stopped wearing the stuff.

Thanks for the info mate, it's a real eye opener. Coming from a mostly military type backround I was taught how to camo myself up against humans, it's been a long time now since I did any training in that sort of stuff, but even at the time I just assumed animals would work on the same sort of principles as humans.

 

[Dougster]

Isn't it just crap that the Brits still use a camoflage that makes a man stand out in the woods - you try it and see.

Great info here, but I think KAE1 is right - keep still, that CG eye contact thing sounds great, I will have to try.

 

[Pablo]

That's a great tip about washing powder. Never thought of that. On a recent Shadowhawk course we rolled around in the dust to "Fuzz-up" i.e. get rid of any shine from clothes. I expect it helped get reduce UV as well. I'm pretty sure animals can detect shine as well.

Pablo.

 

[Emma]

Douglas Adams once observed that to rhinos, a worrying sight is simply something to smell for - like to him, a worrying smell is simply something to look for. If he doesn't see the cause of the worrying smell, he'll probably just ignore it, and in the same way, if a rhino doesn't smell the cause of the worrying sight, it'll probably just ignore it.
Many animals 'see' in smell - don't worry so much about your colour as your smell and how the wind is moving that smell around.