Colorado Big Game Hunters Seeing Pink This Season
This season, Colorado hunters have two choices for required hunting wear, daylight fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink.
There were other changes to this year's hunting rules and regulations, but this may be the most colorful.
The addition of pink was approved by the Colorado Legislature and Governor John Hickenlooper in 2016.
While an option for big game hunters part of last year, the new color wasn't added in writing to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) regulations until the 2017 regulations were printed.
Additional changes to 2017 regulations include the addition of fluorescent pink as an alternative to hunter orange. Hunters are required by law to wear pink or orange when taking deer, elk, pronghorn, moose or black bear with any firearm in order to ensure visibility in the field."
In response to the additional color hunters can wear, Eagle, Colo. entrepreneur Michael Wall launched Pink Hunting Vest which manufactures regulation fluorescent pink hunting vests and backpack covers.
The CPW says pink may appeal more to women, who they say is a growing segment of the hunting community, but others aren't sure about how many people will opt for pink over orange.
Wisconsin, Colorado and New York are the first states to allow hunters to wear pink instead of orange and others are in the process of or have already added pink to the choice of required high visibility clothing.
Here's another reason fluorescent pink may be a good idea, and not just for female hunters. Majid Samadi, a textile science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied both orange and pink and found, "pink is more visible when contrasted with green as well as when contrasted with fall colors."
So if pink is as good or even better than orange, then maybe real men will wear pink. If nothing else, it's nice for hunters of either sex to have a choice of bright colors to wear while out hunting.