How do cats see it? How is their vision different from the human?

We used to think that dogs have an excellent nose, and cats have sharp eyesight. This is a well-known opinion, which is quite true and even confirmed by scientists. And yet it is wrong to think that cats see simply better than us. These amazing animals see the world differently. What is the difference between the vision of our four-legged, tailed and mustached friends from the human? How do cats see and why do they orient themselves so well in unfamiliar terrain? I must say that the usual human notions of vigilance here are not entirely appropriate, since cats see the world is completely different from us.

How do cats in the dark and light

To understand how the cats see, you need to know some features that differentiate the sight of these amazing animals from ours. Their eyes are basically adapted to see the space in the dark. Round and large, with pupils capable of narrowing and widening, they somehow resemble the sight of owls. This is not surprising: after all, both species of animals are considered nocturnal. In bright sunlight, four-legged pets do not distinguish between the details of objects, but in the dark they have no equal. Cat eyes are able to see at illumination ten times lower than we need people. Perhaps that's why they choose the most shaded corners in the apartment as their favorite places to rest. Hunt our pets, too, in the dark. That's the way it would be, live in the wild, although the home-grown Murki and Barsiki can change the schedule of activities to please the owners. Moreover, they do not have an acute need to obtain food through their labor.

If you live, for example, in a holiday home, and there are mice, then it is not difficult to give a suitable example. Everyone knows that rodents, who deliver so much trouble, are mostly night-time. In the day there is too much noise, repelling gray animals, so that the cat goes hunting after sunset. When all the households fall asleep, and the mice will get out of their hiding places.

Their cat games cat also suit in the dark. Spring serenades of cats, sometimes not giving many to sleep and becoming a byword, are heard mostly at night. Hence the phraseology "March cat" appeared, as well as numerous jokes and sayings on this topic.

Based on the above, it will be fair to say that our pets are leading a nocturnal life.

How cats see the world: colored or not

The question is, how do cats of color see and whether they are able to distinguish them at all, excites many. Until recently, there was an opinion that cats, like dogs, have colorless eyesight. And they all look about the same as we are on black and white TV screens . But scientists have refuted this theory. It turned out that our four-legged friends can discern some colors, however, worse than man. In this cat sight distinguishes more than 24 shades of gray. The latter is associated with the coloration of the wool of those whom cats have hunted from time immemorial: voles and mice. After gray in the second place is green. Much worse cat's distinguish between yellow and blue. But in all three cases it is difficult to see the difference between them. But the red can not see at all. However, like many animals. Brightly painted toys are hardly pleasing to the eyes of pets, as we would like it to be.

Other features of feline sight

Playing with your pet, you probably noticed that the most active it reacts to moving the toy horizontally. If you pull the thread or twig up or down, the cat reacts less actively. This behavior is the result of the hunting instinct and one particular view of our four-legged friends. The main prey of cats are rodents, and those move along the horizontal plane. The sharp reaction to the vertical movement of objects has disappeared by itself in the process of evolution. As for how cats are seen at a distance, they are best seen near, and objects located in the distance seem to them slightly blurred. This is also associated with the ambushesome principle of hunting small predators. The stereoscopic type of vision, created by the arrangement of the eyes, helps them to more accurately assess the movement of the prey and coordinate their own actions. If the sight of cats is designed to catch, then the mice have the eyes exactly the opposite - not in one plane, but on the sides of the head, which makes it possible to detect the hunter more efficiently.

In the dark, the eyes of cats glow. This effect is obtained due to the presence in the structure of the iris of a special layer of cells - a mirror layer. The cells of this layer are capable of reflecting even the weakest ray of light. Because of what they work as a good light amplifier. At the same time, the mirror layer causes the same "glow" effect.