I'm 98% sure they can't. Maybe the lower ranges, like humans, but none of the higher nm's

No, they can't see IR at all.

A hog's vision is about on par with a human during the day and they can see a little better than a human at night. The "blind as a bat" stuff isn't true. Have you ever seen a hog take off running through the woods at night? They aren't smelling the trees so that they can avoid running into them, they see them.

reading this had flash back ta movie: Crockadile Dondee: whin the gal asked? how does he find his way threw the woods at night? an Mic say's: he thinks his way.. then ya hear a thud, ugh... .. back in the day, i don't recomend this.... used the deer in head light method for hog hunting... had a lease that hog's were terring up bad in an area... grabbed me pistal, went sat at night bye it, waited, whin heard hog's eased twards them, till was close enough ta make sure twas a hog, aim, turn flash light on... again i don't recomend this method.. thar be all kinds of new equpment.. that thar be pre-historic method...

Hogs lack a tapetum in their eyes unlike the other animals you mentioned, that is why they can not see as well as they do, but they see in the dark/low liight better than humans do.

Also,with respect to seeing artificial light (at night) ....you must be hunting very different hogs than I am. What I have found, (regardless the color) is that light INTENSITY and the ANGLE OF INCIDENCE seem to be what matters. Don't be fooled into thinking that they can not detect a "red" light, (as is often cited). They don't SEE red the same way we do (or green), but that doesn't mean they don't perceive something...or that it doesn't cast a shadow.

The only folks perpetuating the myth that hogs can not see red are one of two folks:

1. People who have not hunted them using a light, or not a bright light.
2. People who SELL red lights for hunting (this is the worst group, they often willingly lie about their product).

As for IR, I have plenty of of video of hogs and deer reacting to the IR glow of the emitters on my game-cam, but obviously the diffused light itself is not seen by them.

Honest mistake, and I want you to know I was not "challenging" your post...just passing along some information that many hunters do not know.

I do a lot of diving for lobster, as well as varmint and especially hog hunting. I do tend to stick to soft lights; as you pointed out, any big ass light will attract attention to itself. (Being color blind, they see 'something' just not in the focus we do. I in general stick to the dimmest light I can shoot by if looking for travelers who will pass by me. For active searching of hogs, I will run a bit more light and expand the range of my search a bit. Everything; everything you hit with a light seems to do one of 2 things: Run, or freeze. I have yet to see an animal lit up real good with a spotlight just cruise along like nothing has happened. But in general, I steer clear of really bright spotlights.

haha, two minds are always better than one....

Hey wait, I thought I was dishing out the simple explanation

The real story is much more complicated than that..

Sometimes it is difficult dealing with doctors and scientists.....

LOL

One thing that is indisputable is that hogs LEARN quickly. They are very smart animals. When pressured, they can really change their tactics a lot. As much as we pattern hogs.... they learn our patterns also, and they will adapt to what we do.

Some interesting points: I agree with some, disagree with others.

1) Hogs don't see Infrared in the range of 830 nM or so. I have painted them right in the eyes at 20 yards, when shooting photos for Laser Devices, and while we painted them with the IR laser, and shined it directly into their eyes, they almost ran us over. Once I shined the torch IR in their eyes, they still didn't see it. Only when they started to get too close, did I shine one of them with a visible red laser, and they stopped abruptly. They didn't know what it was, but it got their attention. Now, if you use IR lights that emit lots of near-visible wavelengths (to humans) then it seems they can see this. I agree with Ponyboy on this one.

2) Hogs can see at night, but you can walk up to them very slowly and get pretty close. They just don't have the acuity other animals / birds do. Think f it this way. If I came creeping up on you wearing night vision, using only IR light, as long as you didn't hear me coming, I could probably get within 30 yards of you, too. If you have the wind, you can usually get really close with IR light and NV. Thermal, is of course, passive, so bueno there.

3) Some hogs stand there and get photographed by a visible flash, over and over, on my cameras. Why, I don't know. Perhaps they just sense it a few times, and when nothing dangerous happens, they blow it off. With others, you see them in the first photo, then they are gone, when the 2 minute delay shot happens. If I have dawn/dusk lights on feeders, they become acclimated to it and blow it off after a couple of nights.

4) If you catch them out in the open, and hit them with white light, 90% of the time, they bolt.


ETA: totally agree, hogs learn our patterns, and the adjust accordingly. They're an amazing adversary.

While this is true, there is an important difference between deer and hogs. When we spot heat signatures from hundreds of yards away with thermal, we usually can't tell deer versus hog unless we can see reflected IR light coming back from an illuminator. If we are > 200 yards away the deer's eyes have enough reflectivity to light up in the NV, whereas the hogs' don't. Obviously, the angle of incidence plays into the degree of reflection, but eventually they look right at us.

This allows us to close on the animals with no retinal reflection, and bypass those we know are deer. You wont see any reflection from the retinas of the hog, until you are somewhere around 100 yards or less, because the amount of light reflected is so much less. This also helps us a little with ranging the hog.

This would suggest that the hog's retinas are less sensitive to IR light than that of deer.

GREAT thread here...(Need to have this thread in the a NV tech forum as well).


Power of the IR energy also plays an important role here as does the angle incidence folks have talked about.

I've talked with many animal biologist who have purchased NV from us over the years and the only critter they all seem to agree on that see's in the near IR is snakes. With that said, I have met a gent from another forum who tests all sorts of IR lasers/illuminators for a living and begs to differ with the experts with his specific testing he has shared with me.

While I do not believe hogs are seeing in the IR spectrum at all, I do believe other critters such as rabbits, some Yotes, and some dear are from the evidence I have seen so far. I and a few others hope to do more research on this very subject in the near future.

Vic

an the answer tis? think that most would agree infared specrun light, will put the odds in your favor...