The eyes of cats are similar to those of humans but evolution has made their vision focus on improving the kinetic activity of these animals, Predators by nature.As good hunters, cats need to understand the movements of things around them when there is low light and It is not essential that they distinguish a wide range of colors to survive, but it is not yet true that they see only black and white, they actually see worse than us when they focus objects at short distances, however, they see worse than we have a wider field of view at great distances and can see in the dark.
If you want to know how cats see, keep reading this Animal Expert article where we’ll show you some important points to keep in mind to find out how cats see.
- To understand how cats look good.
- We must consult the cat expert and scientist at the University of Bristol John Bradshaw.
- Who says that the eyes of cats are larger than human eyes because of their nature.
- Predator.
The fact that the ancestors of felines (wild cats) needed to hunt in order to feed and prolong this activity for as many hours a day, caused their eyes to transform and grow, being larger than humans, in addition to being situated in front of the head (binocular vision) to cover a wider field of vision than the good predators that they are. Cats eyes are very large compared to their heads compared to our proportions.
Due to the need to extend the hunting time of feral cats at night, the ancestors of domestic cats have developed a night vision 6 to 8 times better than that of humans, they are able to see well even with minimal light and this is because they have a higher amount of photoreceptors in the retina.
In addition, cats have what is called tapetum lucidum, with complex eye tissue that reflects light after absorbing a lot of light and before reaching the retina, allowing them to have a clearer vision in the dark and their eyes glow in the dark.So when we take pictures of them at night, the eyes of cats shine, therefore, the less light there is, the better they see cats compared to humans, but on the other hand, felines see worse with daylight also by the tapetum lucidum and photoreceptor cells, which limit their vision by absorbing a lot of light during the day.
As noted above, the photoreceptor cells responsible for the cat’s vision are different from ours, although felines and humans share the same type of photoreceptors, cones to distinguish colors in bright light and sticks to see in black and white in low light, these are not distributed with the same proportion: while the cones dominate our eyes , sticks dominate the eyes of cats, not only that, these sticks do not connect directly to the eye nerve and, therefore, directly to the brain and in humans, connect first between them and form small groups of photoreceptor cells, so that the night vision of cats is excellent compared to ours, but the opposite happens during the day and it is the cats that have a more clear and less blurred vision , because your eyes do not send to the brain, through the nerve, detailed information about the cells that should stimulate the most.
In the past it was believed that cats could only see black and white, but this myth has gone down in history, as several studies have shown that felines can distinguish certain colors on a limited basis and according to the ambient light that exists.
As already mentioned, the photoreceptor cells responsible for color perception are the cones.Humans have 3 different types of cones that capture red light, visible light and blue light; On the other hand, cats only have cones that capture the green and blue light, so they are able to see the cool colors and distinguish some warm colors like yellow but do not see the red core, which in this case sees it as a dark They can also not see colors as bright and saturated as humans, but they see certain colors as dogs.
One element that also influences the vision of cats is light, so the less light there is, the less they can distinguish the colors of the eyes of cats, so felines can only see in black and white in the dark.
According to artist and researcher Nickolay Lamn of the University of Pennsylvania, who conducted a study on feline vision with the help of several feline ophthalmologists and veterinarians, cats have a wider field of view than humans.
Cats have a 200-degree field of view, while humans have a 180-degree field of view, and although it seems small, it is a significant number when comparing the visual range, for example, in these Nickolay Lamn photographs where the top shows what a person sees and the bottom shows less than a cat.
Finally, to better understand how cats see, you have to look at how sharp they are, people have greater visual acuity when they focus objects at short distances because our peripheral field of view on each side is less than that of cats (20 euros compared to 30 euros), so humans can clearly concentrate up to a distance of 30 meters and felines reach 6 meters to see the objects , this is also because we have bigger eyes and fewer facial muscles than we do, however, the lack of peripheral vision gives them a greater depth of field, which is very important for a good predator.
In these photographs, we show you another comparison from researcher Nickolay Lamn on how we see up close (pictured above) and how cats see (pictured below).
If you’re curious about cats, read our article about their memory!
If you would like to read articles similar to, we recommend that you visit our Curiosities section of the animal world.