Cat owners do not always understand the behavior of their pets. Sometimes it may seem that the cat is looking at something that the person cannot see. The ability of these animals to navigate perfectly in the dark is also surprising. How cats see and how are their eyes constructed?

It has already been proven that cats see the world not like humans, but is their vision really as sharp as many claim? Do cats see in the dark or just sense the space around them? To learn more about this, you need to imagine how the eyes of this animal work, and as a cat sees.

Their eyes are interesting even in appearance. Their pupil is not round, but oblong and elongated. Depending on how intense the light is, the pupil turns into a stripe or becomes large and round. This mechanism protects the retina of the eye, so the cat is not disturbed even by very bright flashes of light. This is a very useful evolutionary achievement that domestic pets inherited from their wild ancestors.

The next feature is that their eyes glow in the dark. This happens due to a special reflective cell layer in the eye. When a light beam hits it, it hits the retina, so the cat can catch the same stream of light several times. A cat perceives an object from which light is reflected very brightly, and its eyes glow. Here lies the answer to the question of how cats see in the dark.

Night vision

A healthy sexually mature individual can navigate perfectly in the dark. The animal quickly avoids obstacles and easily finds its toys or food.

There is no secret to this phenomenon. Light-sensitive cells are present in visual organs every animal in this world. These are rods, which help the pet navigate in space in low light conditions, and cones, which help recognize small things and colors. All mammals have these types of cells, but in different numbers.

In the evolutionary process, the cat's eye has managed to adapt to the conditions in which the animal lives. Acute vision is useless during the day, so the number of cones has decreased. But it is very important for a predator to see well at night, because its existence depended on this ability. It is for this reason that the number of rods in a cat's eye significantly exceeds their number in humans.

Distinguishing colors

Not so long ago, scientists had no doubt about the question of whether cats distinguish colors. Their entire family has monochrome vision, since in wild conditions they don't need to differentiate colors. However this theory Not all zoologists supported it. Some have said that the presence of rods in the eye is a guarantee that the animal can distinguish colors.

Experiments have proven that cats do not see everything in black and white. In addition to twenty-five shades of gray, these animals see well, but slightly fadedly, blue, green and violet. Some cats recognize yellow, but many cats confuse it with white. Mustachioed pets cannot distinguish between red, orange and brown shades.

Mysticism

There are many mysteries regarding the fact that cats are able to see ghosts and spirits. They are not scientifically substantiated, but these rumors have haunted people for several centuries. Any cat owner has probably noticed some oddities in the behavior of their pet.

Historical background

The cat has long been considered a very mysterious and even mystical animal. The ancient Egyptians worshiped them, elevating cats to the rank of deities. Pagan religions called them guides from the world of the living to the world of spirits.

In the Middle Ages in Europe, the life of cats was not serene. Christians, knowing how highly the pagans exalted them, considered animals to be minions of the devil, as well as the guise of witches, sorceresses and werewolves. European cats in those days they were practically destroyed.

Reality

Yes, sometimes cats really are watching something invisible, and sometimes they even throw strange hysterics that are incomprehensible to the owner.

Science explains it this way. A cat's vision is not as clear in relation to stationary objects. Seeing movement in the area where something blurry is observed, the pet gets scared and begins to behave inappropriately. This option definitely has a right to exist.

However, if you think about it, there is another rationale. Science has already proven that beyond human perception there is another world, for example, ultrasound, heard only by animals, light waves, not perceived by the human eye. Perhaps cats are able to see everything around them more widely and deeply than humans. Psychics claim that with the help of a cat you can easily establish contact with the world of the dead.

It is not so important for a loving owner how exactly the world appears to his pet. The owner of a cat knows that you can read her mood in her eyes. If you communicate more with your pet, his eyes will always radiate love, and his behavior will remain adequate.

How cats see our world. Photo

The senses of cats and cats are similar to human ones, but they function somewhat differently. Do cats see colors? The animal's senses are intended primarily to assist in hunting. Even pet, living on everything ready-made, the keen perception of the hunter is preserved.

Night vision

The cat's eyes are simply huge in relation to the size of the body. They are much more sensitive to light than human organs of vision. There are significant differences between the vision of humans and animals, and it is not entirely correct to say about the owner of excellent vision that he “sees like a cat.” Representatives of felines see remarkably well in low light: they require about 7 times less light than humans. But bright light, on the contrary, complicates their visual perception.

This is one of typical features from our furry friends. It is explained by the special structure of the visual organs. At the back of the retina of a cat's eye there is a reflective membrane resembling fish scales - the tapetum. It covers the fundus of the eye, 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 has nothing to do with this feature.

Features of cat perception

The presence of tapetum lucidum provides the cat with good night vision, but it also makes visual activity difficult in bright light. That is why, in bright light, the animal does not immediately distinguish anything in front of it. The cat's eyes “glow” thanks to the same reflective layer, and to achieve this effect you need at least the slightest light source.

It is not visible in pitch darkness. This is explained simply: the tapetum only reflects existing light particles, but does not emit them itself. Accordingly, in absolute darkness, like a person, a cat cannot see. Since the animal’s organs of vision are located close to each other and in the same plane, the images of one and the second eye are similar, but not exactly the same. This difference ensures that the final image is three-dimensional, that is, three-dimensional. In other words, the animal's vision is binocular.

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

Animals are able to distinguish 6 basic tones and many shades of gray - up to 25. Cats, like people, are trichromats: they also have 3 types of cones. But their color perception is very different from normal human vision, more reminiscent of colorblind vision. What are the shades of colors that a cat can distinguish? They can see different shades of green and blue well, but they may perceive red as green and purple as a shade of blue. Of course, the rich palette of colors and shades that Homo sapiens sees perfectly is not available

Myopia or farsightedness?

Visual acuity healthy person is 1.0, but 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, a cat can only distinguish from 6 meters. We have already noted above whether cats distinguish colors. Nature is prudent: for a good hunt, a medium-sized animal needs more the ability to see nearby objects.

Saturated colors and fine details are not available to the night hunter, but he does not need them too much. But it sees much better in the dark. Although excellent night vision has a downside. Can cats see colors in normal lighting? During the day, they see like people who have green-red perception disorders. They pick out blue well, but don't find much difference between red, green and brown.

If you carefully monitor your pet, you will notice that it reacts to horizontal movements much more readily than to vertical ones. An animal pays much more attention to a toy rolling on the floor than to an object oscillating up and down. The fact is that it rather notices objects moving in a horizontal plane.

Next interesting feature cat's organs of vision - the lack of muscles necessary to regulate the shape of the lens. For this reason, they cannot focus their gaze on an object that is too close, like humans. They have to move away to see him.

A cat is able to catch a rapidly moving rodent, while a slowly moving object often looks completely motionless to it. These are the peculiarities of vision of those who “walk on their own”!

Since ancient times, cats have been considered magical animals; they were credited with the ability to see ghosts, brownies, and predict the future by their behavior.

We can say with confidence that cats see the world differently, but in what colors, why when the camera flashes and at night, their eyes glow and how sharp their vision is is an interesting and completely unknown question. Is there a mystery behind their eye structure or is it all about touch?

Vision in the dark

Eyes domestic cat different from human structure pupil. Scientists say that their vertical shape plays an important role. During the day, they protect the eyes from bright light, stretching into a narrow strip, and the cat sees the picture of the world unclearly, and at night the pupil enlarges and vision is restored. Light hitting the retina of the eye is reflected from back wall and returns to the nerve endings. This ability explains glowing eyes in the dark and in photographs.

An animal can estimate the distance to an object, its size, but it is best to see objects in motion. The viewing angle is about 250°. At the same time, he does not see anything under his nose within 50 cm. Such blindness is compensated by the senses of touch and hearing.

In absolute darkness, a cat cannot see just like a person, but with the slightest source of light, vision is activated. She moves around with ease, finds food and can keep track of her prey. How so?

For predator animals, night vision is extremely important; their life may depend on it. The retina of the eye has a completely flat shape, whereas in humans it is slightly recessed. The nerve endings through which light passes are called cones (photoreceptors) and rods. Cones are responsible for perceiving the size of objects and color shades, and rods help to navigate in the dark. With the development of life on earth, passing through the stages of evolution, sharp vision V daytime days turned out to be unnecessary and the number of cones decreased, increasing the number of rods. This is how nature itself disposed of the cat’s ability to see in the dark.

Just great. However, this is not entirely true, because their eyes have some disadvantages compared to human organs. It will also be interesting to understand where the myths come from that cats can see “ other world».

In general, the structure of the eye is similar to that of a human eye. Let us recall that the eye consists of three membranes: proteins (sclera), vascular and internal (retina). The top layer on the outside forms the cornea - the first light-refracting barrier. The second membrane - the choroid - forms the iris and pupil in front, the first is a muscle ring, and the second is just a hole with it.

Immediately behind the iris lies the lens - a glassy mineral formation. The inside of the eye is filled with a clear, thick liquid. The inner layer is primarily represented by the retina - a light-sensitive membrane consisting of cells called rods (perceive movement) and cones (responsible for color). A nerve with blood vessels approaches the eye from behind.

Cats, like humans, have binocular vision, that is, the eyes are located in front so that the pet can judge the distance to an object. The location of an object is determined by the difference in the position of the image on the retina of the left and right eyes. This property of vision is very necessary for predators to assess the distance to the prey.

Now we can move on to the structural features of the eye:

1. Cats have much larger corneas than humans. In this animal, it occupies almost the entire surface of the visible part of the eye, while in humans it occupies only 30-50% (depending on the shape of the eyes). In addition, the cornea of ​​cats is very convex. Thanks to this structure, the cat's eye captures not 180, but 200 degrees.
2. A cat perceives the spectrum of light differently. She does not have different red and blue shades, she feels yellow worse, which is why the picture in colors becomes more sparse. However, in general, the image in the spectrum is quite distinguishable and quite similar.
3. The pupil has a different shape - elongated, granular. In humans, meanwhile, it is round. Thanks to this structure, the pupil can narrow and limit the flow of light more. Cats need this because their eyes are more sensitive to light.
4. The posterior membrane of the inner part of the eye has another layer - the tapetum. This is a glossy layer that reflects some of the rays onto the retina that would otherwise be simply scattered or absorbed posterior tissues. Therefore, a cat's eyes are more sensitive to light.
5. A person has a blind spot on the back of the inside of the eye, an area where there are no light-sensitive cells (this is where the nerve enters). In cats, such a zone does not exist; at the point of entry of the nerve there is a special disk in which the cones are located.
6. A cat has 25 times more rods, which is why it is able to see in the dark, since these are the cells that are responsible for sensitivity to light.

It is because of the multiple reflections of light inside a cat's eye that the pupils of cats glow in the dark when a flashlight beam is pointed at them. In this case, the reflected fire changes its hue at different positions of the source. The change in color depends greatly on the pigmentation of the tapetum.

How many colors are there?

Back in the middle of the 20th century, it was believed that cats had black and white vision, but now the perception of color by cats has not only been proven, but a detailed spectrum has even been clearly established. Cats cannot distinguish between blue and red, worse - orange and brown. But they perceive violet, blue and yellow normally.

This gradation is associated with varying amounts cones - cells that are responsible for perception a certain color. Responsible for each shade separate group cells. Cats have a different percentage of each cone class than humans, causing different sensitivity to components solar spectrum.

How far can they see

Cats have terrible myopia. In fact, they can normally and clearly distinguish objects only at a distance of up to 20 meters. When an object moves 60 meters or more away, it becomes so blurry for cats that they cannot distinguish its outlines at all. Maximum clarity is achieved when the object is removed from 75 centimeters to 6 meters - this is the distance of a cat's jump.

Why is this so, because cats are predators, which means visual acuity for them - most important factor? The fact is that they hunt mainly small animals, which are found quite often in the forest. In addition, their hunting area is tall grass in the field and undergrowth. And there you don’t need to look at a long distance, since the space is cluttered with foliage and trees.

In contrast, people hunted large animals, which are very rare and live mainly in open spaces. To find them, it was necessary to clearly distinguish traces, blood stains and at the same time look at considerable distances. Because of this, a person has strong vision clarity at long distances and good perception of the entire spectrum of light.

How they see in the dark

Of course, no animal can see in complete darkness, since some amount of light is required to perceive colors. Cats distinguish objects in minimal lighting. Pets need 10 times less light than humans, so what is pitch darkness for us is twilight for cats.

Cats' sensitivity to light is due to the presence of a reflective film inside the eye, due to which the rays are not scattered, but are completely collected on the retina. Because of this, for normal perception of the surrounding world, a cat needs a 10 times less intense source. Due to the reflected light, a cat's eyes glow in the dark.

The pigmentation of the tapetum and iris is controlled by a single gene, so that in blue-eyed cats (no matter what color coat) this membrane does not reflect light back, which is why their vision is much weaker than that of other representatives of the cat family. In general, their vision is comparable to human perception, except that they see a little better in the dark due to large quantity cones (but not much).

"Other World"

Rumors that cats can see another world are fueled by several factors:

1. Pets distinguish ultrasonic vibrations. The range is from 45 Hz to 64,000 Hz, while mice communicate at a frequency of 20-50 kHz. So when a cat stares at the corner of the room or the wall, then, most likely, the problem is not ghosts, but cockroaches, mice, or simply a cracked partition.

2. Cats are not able to perceive ultraviolet or infrared light, since both types of radiation are filtered out by the lens and cornea. But they have vibrises - thin antennae that are responsible for tactile sensations. Including the perception of heat. It is thanks to them that they can find currents of hot and cold air.

3. The cat does not see any “auras”, but, like a person, it is able to distinguish internal state an individual based on non-verbal signs: facial expressions, intonations, body movements. This skill develops in all animals that communicate with people for a long time.

Cats have a faster perception speed. For a person, it is enough for the images on the TV to change at a speed of 24 frames per second. A cat needs 40-50 pictures per second for the flickering to turn into a full-fledged video. Not all TVs have this frame rate.

The cat sees itself in the mirror and realizes that there is some kind of animal there. True, she is not able to understand that this is precisely her reflection. Also, many pets are frightened by their own reflection, as they think that in front of them is an animal that has no smell and does not make sounds. This can be compared to when a person sees a ghost.

The cat perceives people's faces as yellow, since it does not distinguish between orange and red shades. The animal can normally distinguish its nose, lips, hair and eyes at distances of up to 5 meters. At a distance of 5 to 10 meters, facial features gradually blur, and then elements of clothing. At a distance of more than 10 meters, a cat can only distinguish the silhouette of a person, and can recognize its owner only by voice and smell.

People treated cats in different ways: they deified them, attributed them to the servants of Satan, and were afraid, considering the furry creatures to be associated with the afterlife. Cats are the most intriguing representatives of the animal kingdom, living side by side with humans.

In addition to the flexible body and predatory habits, people have always been interested in the vision of cats. The cat's eye is perfection itself, its gaze enchants, bewitches and draws you into a kind of mystical whirlpool. After studying cat eyes, scientists realized how differently meowing four-legged animals see the world around them.

For that how cats see, corresponds to the special structure of the animal’s visual organs. The work of the pupil is interesting - it is strictly vertical. If you have seen the reaction of a cat's eye to bright light, then you will immediately remember that the pupil sharply narrows. The pupil reacts to twilight or dim light by dilating.

You should not think that the cat’s predatory characteristics contribute to special visual acuity. No, furry friends see worse than a man in the daytime, and they are also nearsighted. The ability to clearly “see” the outlines of objects exists thanks to vibrissae - special prominent hairs on the muzzle and mustache. Thanks to the whiskers, the animal is able to determine the distance between objects, and at the same time adjust the jump trajectory in its head with high accuracy. The cats' viewing angle is amazing: 270° - a full spatial overview. The prey has no chance.

At night, the only thing that can surpass a cat in vigilance is a night vision device - we’ll talk about this feature of the cat’s body a little lower.

What colors do cats see?

We figured out how clearly cats are able to navigate the night world and what helps them during the day, but what colors do they distinguish? From biology courses, everyone knows that the lens of the eye contains photoreceptors called rods and cones. Rods contribute to cats’ special night vision, and animals distinguish colors thanks to the work of cones.

Since there are fewer cones than rods, the advantage is on the side of acute night vision.

A curious thing about the structure of a cat’s eye is the presence of a tapetum, a specific formation responsible for reflecting unabsorbed light. The tapetum sends all the light to the retina. People see the cat's eyes glowing as a result, although in reality it is reflected light.

The previous opinion was that cats only have access to achromatic colors: black, white and shades of gray. But scientific research On this topic, the conclusions were corrected: since there are cones in the eye, therefore, the animal is able to distinguish the color gamut. What colors can cats see? Fluffies have access to blue, green and gray tones. They confuse yellow with white and distinguish purple. Red, brown and orange are not available to them.

How cats see our world

Cats thrive in our world and see it somewhat differently because of the structure of their eyes. The reaction to life around is expressed in the gaze. Fear is noticeable by the dilation of the pupils to round shape, anger narrows the pupils to a narrow strip. Any event in the external world is reflected in the behavior of the animal. Even a mirror can be attacked by a cat, since it sees in it not itself, but the same animal. It is interesting to observe how a pussy, excited by its own reflection, calms down and loses all interest in it - except for a visual signal, the mirror does not show others.

Cats have an interesting attitude towards TV - there is still debate about what they can distinguish between a running picture or a simple flashing of frames, but cats definitely like programs about animals. Even the absence of sound does not interrupt the purr’s observation of a bird hovering on the screen, which the cat will try to knock down with its paw.

A cat sees a person in a different color. Due to myopia, the pet can better distinguish the outlines of the owner in the distance of the room than nearby.

How cats see in the dark

As mentioned, in the cat's eye there is a certain organ called tapetum, located in the retina. All absorbed cat's eye light appears to a person as a glow in the night. What happens to the vision of a cat in the dark? The pupil becomes bottomless - so it absorbs maximum light, which is reflected from the mirror organ of the tapetum and returns to the nerve endings.

In photographs you can always see the cat's eyes glowing in dim light. Cats are nocturnal hunters, so evolution has made sure that they see much more clearly at night. This is roughly what people see at dusk. If the ancestors of modern cats had not been able to focus their gaze on prey in the dark during the night hunt, then perhaps the cat genus would not have survived to this day. Yes, once upon a time necessary improvement organs of vision, with the help of the efforts of nature, gave the domestic cat the ability to perfectly navigate in the dark and became an important condition for the further evolution of the genus.

Do cats see the other world?

From the day the first cat was tamed, people have been observing the pets living in the same territory with them. For many centuries people believed in the existence of brownies, in various kinds spirits and the souls of the dead who come to the house.