Vision.

This is coolbert:

Do humans possess certain innate predatory physical traits and instincts that allow them to be better soldiers?

One area where this may be so is in the area of visual acuity.

We are of course aware of the binocular vision that humans possess. This is something that is common among predatory animals. Allows for measuring the distance to a prey animal. The tarsier, the big-eyed, bug-eyed proto-simian, has large binocular eyes and is exclusively a meat eater. Exists by killing and eating insects. Cute little bugger, but very deadly. Needs those big eyes to see in the dark and estimate the distance to the prey before leaping and "having" dinner arrive. Click here to see a web site about tarsiers.

Another area of visual acuity is the ability to pick out movement against a background. This would be an obvious advantage to any predator. The comments of some knowledgeable persons in this area are illustrative:

"The black baseball hitter has an inherent advantage over the white baseball hitter. The black player possesses better visual acuity. He can more readily pick out the spin on the baseball as it is being pitched toward him" - - Bill Veeck.

By picking out the spin on the baseball as it is being pitched toward him is an advantage. The hitter can tell if it is curve, and is therefore a hittable baseball, and is worth swinging at, or if it is just an inside pitch and not worth swinging at. This allows the hitter for more hittable baseballs to swing at.

"The black infantry man in Vietnam had two advantages over the white infantry man. He attained a higher level of physical conditioning, and he maintained it longer. And he was more readily able to pick out movement against a background" - - U.S. Army officer that served in Vietnam.

Now, I am sure a lot of people would pick up on the racial angle of these anecdotes and immediately disagree. But is there something to this, that it is possible for some organisms to pick out movement against a background more readily than others.??

Well, the answer is yes!

It has been observed that in a number of African predators, such as cheetahs, leopards, lions, a head bobbing motion was seen when the predator would amble across the savanna, in search of prey. For a long time, no one had any idea why this head bobbing motion existed. Well, it has recently been discovered that in these predators exists a narrow band on vision that is exceedingly sensitive to movement against a background. The head bobbing motion allows the predator to "search" an area for the movement of prey, from close to far away.

During the British Bomber Command campaign against Germany during World War Two, the British adopted the policy of flying night bombing missions.

And this presented a problem for German night fighters.

Just trying to find the British bombers silhouetted against the darkened night sky was a real difficulty.

One technique the Germans employed was called "wilde sau" [wild boar]. German night fighters would fly above the British bomber formations, while the ground would be lit with flares and searchlights by the Germans. This presented a background that the British bombers would be silhouetted against. Once located by a night fighter flying above, the bomber, standing out against the background was an easy prey. The ability to pick out movement against a background would be very valuable here.

And it is reputed that a battery of vision tests was performed by the German military doctors to determine which pilots possessed the proper vision for this sort of combat. Ability of the pilot's night vision to recover from sudden glare was one of the tests.

"The normal test at that time, covered the sharpness of vision, stereo eye sight, straightness of eyes (no tendency to cross), and color blindness. Now, every candidate was given an additional exam using a new Nyktometer, specially bought from Germany. It was used to test hemeralopia. The candidate´s eyes were blinded by a powerful light and the time to recover was measured. If the time was too long, the pilots way to Germany was cut. Some of the candidates were cancelled by the Nyktometer."

Superior vision can be a definite asset to the fighter. Is there a specific test that pilots are given to measure this ability, the ability to pick out movement against a background? I do not know. I bet if there was, and you examined the pilots that excelled at "wilde sau", you would find this ability in an enhanced version!

coolbert.