Whether cats are distinguishable from color, or Features of the sight of furry pets

The senses of cats and cats are similar to human, but they function somewhat differently. Do cats have the same color? Feelings of the animal are designed mostly for hunting assistance. Even a pet has a keen perception of the hunter.

Night vision

The cat's eyes in relation to the size of the body are just huge. They are much more susceptible to light than the human organs of sight. There are significant differences between the sight of a person and an animal, and it is not entirely correct to talk about the owner of an excellent vision that he "sees like a cat". Representatives of felines remarkably see in poor light: they need light about 7 times less than a person. But bright light, on the contrary, makes their visual perception more difficult.

This is one of the typical features of the sight of our furry friends. It is explained by the special structure of the organs of vision. Behind the retina of the cat's eye is a reflective membrane, resembling a fish scales - tapetum. It covers the fundus, performing a reflective function, and provides the animal with excellent visibility at dusk. Refracting on it, the light returns back to the retina, which increases the clarity of perception in the dark. The way cats distinguish colors is not related to this feature.

Features of cat perception

The presence of tapetum lucidum provides the cat good night vision, but it also makes it difficult to visual activity in bright light. That is why, in bright light, the animal does not immediately discern anything before itself. "Luminous" cat eyes due to the same reflective layer, and to achieve this effect, you need at least the slightest light source.

In pitch darkness, it is not observed. This is explained simply: tapetum only reflects the available light particles, but does not emit them themselves. Accordingly, in absolute darkness, like a person, a cat can not see. Since the organs of the animal's sight are not far from each other and in the same plane, the images of one and the second eye are similar, but not exactly the same. This difference provides a three-dimensional final image, that is, a three-dimensional one. In other words, the animal's vision is binocular.

Do cats have the same color?

In the process of evolution, night predators perfectly adapted to the twilight vision: they notice even a slight movement in the dark. But for the sake of these remarkable qualities they have sacrificed others - contrast and the ability to perceive a wide range of colors. So do cats see color? Not so long ago it was believed that they see and distinguish only white and black. This assumption turned out to be wrong.

Animals are able to distinguish 6 basic tones and many shades of gray - up to 25. Cats, like humans, are trichromates: they also have 3 types of cones. But their color perception is very different from the normal human, reminiscent of the greater vision of the colorblind. What are the shades of colors that a cat distinguishes? They can see different shades of green and blue, but red can be perceived as green and violet as a shade of blue. Of course, a rich palette of colors and shades, which Homo sapiens perfectly sees, is inaccessible to the cat family.

Nearsightedness or farsightedness?

The visual acuity of a healthy person is 1.0, while in a cat this figure can reach only 0.2 - 0.1. In other words, what a person can see at a distance of 60 meters, the cat distinguishes only with 6. Whether cats are distinguishable colors, we have already noted above. Nature is prudent: for good hunting a smaller animal needs more ability to see closely located objects.

Saturated colors and small details to the night hunter are inaccessible, but he does not need them too much. But at times he sees better in the dark. Although excellent night vision has the opposite aspect. Do cats have colors under normal lighting? In the daytime, they see people like those who have a violation of green and red perception. They clearly distinguish blue, but do not find a special difference between red, green and brown.

Interesting Facts

If you carefully follow the pet, you can notice that it responds to horizontal movements much more willingly than it does to vertical movements. Animal draws much more attention to a toy rolling on the floor than on an object that fluctuates up and down. The fact is that it rather notices objects moving in the horizontal plane.

The next interesting feature of feline organs of vision is the lack of the muscles needed to regulate the shape of the lens. For this reason, they can not focus their attention on an object that is too closely located, like people. To see it, they have to move away.

A cat is capable of catching a rapidly rushing rodent, while a slowly moving object often looks completely motionless to it. These are the features of those who "walk by themselves"!