Desert camouflage and what wildlife see

Kuhne, Wendy W.; Duff, Martine C.; Salvaggio, Katie; Halverson, Nancy V.; Staggs, Ronald

doi:10.1177/0960336017738177

Desert camouflage and what wildlife see

Journal Article · Thu Oct 26 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · NIR news

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/0960336017738177· OSTI ID:1427458

Kuhne, Wendy W. ^[1]; Duff, Martine C. ^[1]; Salvaggio, Katie ^[1]; Halverson, Nancy V. ^[1]; Staggs, Ronald ^[1]

Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)

Desert, desert-scrub, savanna and sandy beach and lakeshore environments can be particularly tricky in terms of camouflage selection due to their low vegetative density. Therefore many companies focus on the development of paint color schemes that match the vegetation and the desert soils/sands. However another factor in the consideration of which camouflage to purchase may lie in what the animal can see. White-tailed deer and similar large mammals have been shown to have three classes of photo pigments that are sensitive to the range of blue to yellowgreen during day light hours and blue to blue-green at night. Six commercially-available camouflage patterns were investigated to determine if the reflectance characteristics measured in the laboratory and under field conditions were elevated in the blue range and perhaps more likely to be seen by wildlife. The camouflage patterns were evaluated against standard vegetation indices including NDVI, SAVI, EVI, and SR. Only two of the patterns (S4 and S5) possessed a reflectance more like vegetation. Patterns S4, S6, S3, and S2 all showed only slight elevations in the blue wavelength range which could only have been detected by NIR measurements instead of visual observation by the human eye.

Research Organization:: Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC09-08SR22470

OSTI ID:: 1427458

Report Number(s):: SRNL--STI-2017-00750

Journal Information:: NIR news, Journal Name: NIR news Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 28; ISSN 0960-3360

Publisher:: SAGECopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
NIR
animals
blue wavelength
camouflage
desert

Desert camouflage and what wildlife see

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References (13)

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