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Zorro laughed well recently when he saw me looking for the ladybird which I had down on the nose ; he even dared to say that I needed glasses ! This ladybird was just outside my field of vision, that’s all…
The cats eyes are made to spot the slightest movement. Our vision field is bigger than that of human : human covers approximately 210o (120o binocular), and we cover approximately 285o (130o binocular).
Proportionally to the size of our head, we have big eyes.
Our pupillary reflex to the variation of luminous intensity is extremely fast : only big cats of the Felis genre can retract their pupil to the size of a slender vertical crack. We can dilate it also considerably to see better at night.
We are able to distinguish colors, but less well than humans : we are little sensitive to red, and we could say that our vision of tints is more pale. This is due to the structure of our eye cells : we have more rod cells (night-vision in black and white) than cones (diurnal and colored vision). We are diurnal and crepuscular predators, thus our eye is perfectly adapted to our nature.
Two erroneous assertions have nevertheless firm existence :
- Cats see in total darkness.
WRONG. Cats need from five to six times less light than humans to see during the night, but they cannot see in total darkness. - The eyes of cats shine in the dark.
WRONG. Our pupil is dilated to receive the tiniest rays of light in the darkness. Cells situated behind the retina act as a mirror to amplify the light and allow us so to see better when it’s dark, what seems to make our eyes shine.
Hi
Thank you for this interesting post! It’s funny how things go around, Conscious Cats wrote today a post on “Mews and Nips: Cats Can See Things that Are Invisible to Humans” http://consciouscat.net/2015/03/14/mews-and-nips-cats-can-see-things-that-are-invisible-to-humans/
I knew that cats can’t see in total darkness, but I had never heard of UV radiation and vision fields. 285° is a lot!
We follow the Conscious Cat too, and it’s funny indeed ! The post is very interesting. Purrs
That is most interesting.
Mom enjoyed reading about our eyes.
She loves looking at our eyes too
Purrs Georgia and Julie,
Treasure and JJ
Wow! How fascinating to read an explanation of our special eyesight!
Gweat posty. Very infurmative as usual. Fanks fur da info. Hav a pawsum weekend.
Luv ya’
Dezi and Lexi
That was very interesting.
I knew we were special!! Great post
Thank you so much! That is so interesting. Mommie thought we could not see colors at all so this is a good lesson.
Very interesting my friend…have a great weekend and an extra kiss to Momo.
Huggles,
Shoko
Wow, we just learned a lot! A very cool and interesting post indeed! Thanks for sharing.
Very interesting. Though I think my cat might also be able to see my thoughts as well…..Lol!
Great post! Cats eyes are amazing
Purrs xx
Athena and Marie
Interesting to read an explanation of our special eyesight !!
XOXO
Everything about cats is special! Even their eyesight
Thank you for sharing !
the critters in the cottage xo
Mommy and Daddy were talking about how cats see this morning!!! And Mommy just read the post to Daddy! Yous answered some questions!
Thanks for your serendipitous post!
Kisses
Nellie
Eyes are amazing, but cat’s eyes are extra special. Low-light vision and wide-angle viewing are special features of our eyes. And I think it’s amazing that we can do laser eyes!
Great post!
Whoa, guess I missed a birthday party. Happy Birthday to youuu, Happy Birthday to youuu, Happy Birthday to youuu Happy birthday to youuu. You are gorgoeus and were also a gorgeous kitten.
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Thanks for some very interesting information and the exceptionally excellent photo of Zorro and Pixie. Kisses to Zorro from Calista Jo. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo