Ask A Scientist© Zoology Archive

name         John
status       other
age          50s

Question -   How does the auditory and visual response of a deer to
noise and
light differ from that of a human?
At a fundamental level, there is very little difference among mammals in
the audiovisual pathways. The anatomy of the deer eye and inner ear and
the general organization of the neural circuits/brain wiring would be
virtually indistinguishable from those of the human. There's a lot more
brain in humans through which to filter and alter responses but at a
reflex level of operation, things look remarkably similar. At a behavioral
response level, deer behave like deer; people behave like people, allowing
in either case for the variability among populations [Sika deer or moose;
male or female; young or old; urban or rural people...] and any
'training/conditionning that either organism may have had.
Dr. Dinsmore

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