Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Squirrels see colors?

In the last issue of Succesful Hunter there's an article about squirrel hunting and the writer stated squirrels see colors. I don't know. I do wear blaze orange or red hunting them. Anyone know if they can see colors?

I asked one today and he said no.

I sometimes think that blaze orange is an attractant. miles

You're amazing ! I can't get one to stop jumping around long enough to ask without shooting it.

I've shot squirrels wearing anything from full camo to blaze orange vests to jeans and a red plaid shirt.

Colors don't make much difference, but movement scares the schit out of them.

Agreed. Most folks don't realize turkey are more concerned about movement than color which they CAN see.

Yep.

Then again, most folks spend their hunting time behind Field & Stream and not behind an oak tree....

I've done a LOT of squirrel hunting over the years... and I don't believe (but don't really KNOW for SURE) that squirrel "see" color other than shades of gray like most game animals.

However, as "VA" sez, they DO see "movement" very quickly... and react by running around the other side of the tree. But there is a way to make them run BACK to YOUR SIDE of the tree again.

How? EASY !!! Pick up a rock or a chunk of wood and toss it beyond the tree the squirrel is in. The noise of the rock or limb crashing down in the dry leaves will bring "Mr. Fuzzy-Tail" back around the tree to YOUR side where you can put a .22 hollow-point into "use".

Rocks that "roll" seem to work better than flat rocks or pieces of limbs that won't roll. My guess is that the "rolling stone" sounds like something running through the noisy, dry leaves... possibly a fox or pine martin, a squirrel's BIG TIME "enemy" !!! A pine martin is one of the few predators that can CATCH a squirrel in a tree !!!

Give this proven method a "try"... I think you'll find you can use the squirrel's wary nature and his "habit" of running around to the "other side" of the tree when alarmed to put him in your rifle's sights... and, in your game bag.


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

It works, sometimes.

Better, I've found, to just wait the little bastid out.

Besides, a decent throwin' rock is NEVER handy when a squirrel does the duck-and-cover routine....

Yes, squirrels do see color. It is well studied because it has always been thought that cone cells in the human eye see color, so all animals would need cones to see color. Alas, this is not so, squirrels have about 90% rods, but have color vision via neurological pathways that allow them to see color.

ED

Well, damn it, which ones? And, in what shades and hues?

Is this a case for misplaced modifiers or what. I've never shot a squirrel that was wearing any of those things. (Sorry...I just couldn't let it go. I tried..but...)

The second part of that is "How a squirrel got those clothes, I'll never know"

Steve

True. Should have stated: "I've shot squirrels while I was wearing anything from full camo to blaze orange vests to jeans and a red plaid shirt."

'course, I'd have shot the squirrels if they'd been wearing the same, regardless.....

This morning I was going outside for an to get something from the truck when my dog treed a gray squirrel,since our season is still in I grabbed the 22 and shot him in my pajamas.

What he was doing my pajamas,I'll never know.

Britt

Probably with a vengeance....

Good one! They've worn mine before also.

There's one you don't see on the Outdoor channel!

ED, thanks for reply and clearing it up. Dave