Eye shine of mammals (1 Viewer)

[jurek]

The thread "night birding" made me go a couple of times into the suburban forest with a torch. I saw some shining eyes of animals - a magical experience! But I am not certain what I saw.

Who knows in what color shine eyes of:
fox?
racoon?
pine marten?
badger?
polecat?
hare?
raccoon dog?
red deer?
house cat?

 

[saluki]

The thread "night birding" made me go a couple of times into the suburban forest with a torch. I saw some shining eyes of animals - a magical experience! But I am not certain what I saw.

Who knows in what color shine eyes of:
fox?
racoon?
pine marten?
badger?
polecat?
hare?
raccoon dog?
red deer?
house cat?

Firstly, be careful what you're doing Jurek - shining high powered lamps around at night can attract attention from the police and gamekeepers/foresters!

That said, eyes can look different colours in different conditions, and to different people. Fox's eyes always look like two bright white headlamps to me, with an amber tinge. Don't know about Racoon. Pine Martin's look green, Polecat - I can't remember, though I've kept Polecats myself! Hare and Rabbit - red. Red deer - well, all deer found in Britain - light green. Cat - green. Woodcock can look like hares or rabbits - they often feed out on stubble, for instance, at night. So too, partridge and pheasant, though woodcock's eyes are easier to spot.

It can be difficult at first. Take a pair of binocs with you and a powerful torch (250,000 candle power minimum). Try to look beyond the eyes if you can, often you can make out a shape. If you know the lay of the land you can often tell roughly how tall the animal is. Look for the distance between the eyes too - the distance between the eyes of a Red stag is going to be different than that between the eyes of a Roe deer for instance.

Try imitating the distress call of a rabbit by sucking on the palm of your hand (other people do it different ways). You will almost always get a reaction - if it's a deer or hare for instance it might run away. If it's a predator it might come towards you - which can be incredibly exciting! Depending on the time of year, even hares and sometimes rabbits will come in to such a call. And remember to stay downwind so that whatever it is can't scent you!

Hope this helps.

saluki

 

[jurek]

Thanks!

I was once stopped by police when birding. They were friendly and no problem.