Hello,
Geez, I think I got to typing too fast in the post above!
The whitetail's 6th sense: the vomeronasal organ, is not on its tongue -- it's on the roof of its mouth! I've really got to ease up on the coffee some mornings! Also, I just did some checking and found out that coyotes also have this organ, just as 2/3’s of people do. Sort of interesting.
Anyway, also, I shouldn't have said that deer are color blind -- rather they are "color limited" as are coyotes. They, like coyotes, have dichromatic vision -- having two types of cones -- color receptive cells -- in the retina -- versus the three of humans. This gives both deer and coyotes limited color vision in the violet and blue-violet range and in the blue, greenish-yellow, yellow and red range. Evidence suggests that both deer and coyotes probably see various shades of gray better than do humans. This is what various researchers believe anyway.
From my experience in the stand, however, I think coyotes pick up on blaze orange better than do deer. Coyotes also have much better depth perception than do deer (coyotes have binocular vision, with eyes close together on the front of their head. Deer have perceptive or prey vision, with eyes placed far back on the sides of their head).
Just a few additional thoughts. This is pretty good for me, as I usually try to avoid thinking on the weekends!
Good Hunting....Raven (by the way a raven can see better than a coyote can smell! Ha!)
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I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer Aldo leopold