Desert camouflage and what wildlife see
Abstract
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.
- Authors:
-
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1427458
- Report Number(s):
- SRNL-STI-2017-00750
Journal ID: ISSN 0960-3360; TRN: US1802717
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC09-08SR22470
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- NIR news
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 28; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 0960-3360
- Publisher:
- SAGE
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; camouflage; desert; blue wavelength; animals; NIR
Citation Formats
Kuhne, Wendy W., Duff, Martine C., Salvaggio, Katie, Halverson, Nancy V., and Staggs, Ronald. Desert camouflage and what wildlife see. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1177/0960336017738177.
Kuhne, Wendy W., Duff, Martine C., Salvaggio, Katie, Halverson, Nancy V., & Staggs, Ronald. Desert camouflage and what wildlife see. United States. https://doi.org/10.1177/0960336017738177
Kuhne, Wendy W., Duff, Martine C., Salvaggio, Katie, Halverson, Nancy V., and Staggs, Ronald. Thu .
"Desert camouflage and what wildlife see". United States. https://doi.org/10.1177/0960336017738177. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1427458.
@article{osti_1427458,
title = {Desert camouflage and what wildlife see},
author = {Kuhne, Wendy W. and Duff, Martine C. and Salvaggio, Katie and Halverson, Nancy V. and Staggs, Ronald},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1177/0960336017738177},
journal = {NIR news},
number = 8,
volume = 28,
place = {United States},
year = {2017},
month = {10}
}
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