Cats' eyes are similar to those of people but evolution has made their vision focused on improving the hunting activity of these animals, predators by nature. As good hunters, cats need to perceive the movements of things around them when there is little light and it is not essential that they distinguish a wide range of colors to survive, but still, it is not true that they only see in black and white. In reality, they see worse than us when it comes to focusing on objects up close, but nevertheless, they have a greater field of vision at great distances and are able to see in the dark.
If you want to know how cats see, keep reading this article on our site where we are going to teach you a few important points to take into account when knowing how cats see.
Cats have bigger eyes than us
To fully understand how cats see, we must refer to cat specialist and scientist at the University of Bristol, John Bradshaw, who claims that cat eyes are larger than human eyes due to its predatory nature.
The fact that the predecessors of felines (wild cats) had the need to hunt in order to feed themselves and prolong this activity for as many hours a day, caused their eyes to transform and They will increase in size, being larger than those of humans, in addition to being arranged in front of the head (binocular vision) in order to cover a greater field of vision as good predators. In fact, cats' eyes are very large compared to their heads when compared to our proportions.
Cats see 8 times better in dim light
Due to the need to prolong the hunting time of wild cats at night, the ancestors of domestic cats developed a night vision between 6 and 8 times better than humans They are able to see well even in dim light and this is because they have a greater number of photoreceptors in the retina.
In addition, cats have a so-called tapetum lucidum, a complex eye tissue that reflects light after it has absorbed a large amount and before reaching the retina, which makes them have sharper vision in the dark and their eyes glow in the dark. That's why when we take a picture of them at night, the cats' eyes sparkle. Thus, the less light there is, the better how cats see compared to humans, but at the same time, felines see worse in daylight due also to the tapetum lucidum and photoreceptor cells, which limits their vision. vision by absorbing a lot of light during the day.
Cats see blurrier in daylight
As mentioned above, the light receptor cells responsible for vision in cats are different from ours. Although both felines and humans share the same type of photoreceptors, the cones to distinguish colors in bright light and the rods to see black and white in dim light, these are not distributed in the same proportion: while in our eyes cones dominate, in cat eyes rods dominateAnd not only that, but also, these rods do not connect directly with the ocular nerve and, consequently, directly with the brain as it happens in humans, but they first connect with each other and form small groups of photoreceptor cells. In such a way that the night vision of cats is excellent compared to ours, but during the day the opposite happens, and it is the felines that have a more blurred and less sharp vision, because their eyes do not send to the brain via the ocular nerve detailed information about which cells need to be stimulated more.
Cats don't see in black and white
In the past, it was believed that cats could only see in black and white, but that myth has now passed into history as multiple studies have shown that cats can distinguish some colors to a limited extent and depending on of ambient light.
As already mentioned, the photoreceptor cells responsible for perceiving colors are the cones. Humans have 3 different types of cones that capture red, green, and blue light; On the other hand, cats only have cones that capture green and blue light. Therefore, are able to see cold colors and distinguish some warm color like yellow but they do not see the color red which they perceive as a dark gray. They are also not able to perceive colors as vivid and saturated as humans, but they do see some colors like dogs.
An element that also influences cats' vision is light, which means that the less light there is, the less cats' eyes can distinguish colors, which is why cats onlysee black and white in the dark.
Cats have a wider field of vision
According to artist and researcher Nickolay Lamm of the University of Pennsylvania, who has conducted a study on feline vision with the help of several ophthalmologists and feline veterinarians, cats perceivea field of vision greater than that perceived by humans
Felines have a field of vision of 200 degrees, while humans have a field of vision of 180 degrees, and although it seems little, it is a significant number if you compare the visual amplitude, for example, in these photographs by Nickolay Lamm where the top shows what a person would see and the bottom shows what a cat would see.
Cats don't focus well up close
Finally, to better understand how cats see, we need to look at the sharpness of what they see. People have greater visual acuity when it comes to focusing on close objects because our range of peripheral vision on each side is less than that of cats (20º compared to their 30º). That is why humans can focus clearly up to a distance of 30 meters and felines only reach 6 meters to see objects well up close This fact also This is because they have larger eyes and fewer facial muscles than we do. However, the lack of peripheral vision gives them a greater depth of field, which is extremely important for a good predator.
In these photographs we show you another comparison by researcher Nickolay Lamm of how we see up close (top photo) and how cats see (bottom photo).
