HUNTER ORANGE

Now that it is officially Spring we can look forward to Wild Turkey Season. Except Mother Nature has either missed that memo or chosen to ignore it for there is still a lot of snow cover and even once Turkey season commences don’t be surprised that you will need to dress warmly; often more warmly than you do for the first week of deer season.

Perhaps you have heard, as I have, that fluorescent green is more visible to colour-blind folks than it is to those who aren’t so afflicted? Well, after searching the internet I had one of those ‘light-bulb’ moments and phoned an optometrist.

“Not so,” he told me. “People with normal vision see fluorescent green better than fluorescent orange. People who are colour blind see fluorescent orange better than fluorescent green.” Thus putting that myth to bed. Turkeys of course see everything with greater clarity than the human eye. Hence camouflage.

I had also contacted the MNRF concerning this issue and “Hunter Orange”. The ministry said HO regulations were brought in after extensive consultation. Ontario’s specifications matched standards already in place throughout much of North America. Standards proven to maximize hunter visibility. Many outdoors clothing manufacturers were already producing clothing that met or exceeded those standards.

“Ontario recognizes that fluorescent colours, such as yellow or green, may add to the visibility of hunter orange garments. Garments that are predominantly hunter orange – but also incorporate bands of fluorescent green, yellow or lime – meet the regulated requirements for hunter orange clothing.”

I first heard of colour-blindness when my mother worked for a carpet salesman who had been rejected for WW2 because he was colour-blind. In fact, as it turned out, he had simply incorrectly learned his colours.