Cats are small, friendly carnivorous mammals that belong to the Felidae family and often kept as indoor pets. Like dogs, cats are one of our friendliest companions, as they feature unique attributes. They are most active at dusk and dawn rather than at daytime. This may reinforce the belief that they see well at night more than they do at daylight. So, do cats have night vision? The following are some features about cats that could help us understand the extent to which they possess night vision.
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Nocturnal Creature
Cats, like the other members of the Felidae family, have excellent night vision. Their instinct for hunting at night could be one of the reasons for this. Although cats can’t see in pitch darkness, a little light is enough for them to recognize their surroundings. Low light, as little as one-sixth required for the human eye, is sufficient for them to move around in the night. Also, their eyes have many more rods compared to ours.
It is such rods that are responsible for absorbing lights. An elliptical pupil is another distinguishing feature that helps cats have good visions. More light can get in through their elliptical pupil than the average human pupil. This gives them an edge when it comes to scanning for images at night. Another significant quality about a cat’s vision is the tapetum lucidum. This is a membrane created to reflect more light inside the eye to reach the retina. The higher the amount of light transmitted to the retina, the better the vision.
Shorter-Range Of Vision
Cats, just like other felines, are naturally born to be stealth hunters. Be it a tiger, lion, leopard, cheetah, or a domestic cat; they all stalk their prey before attacking it. Since cats are stealth hunters, they often choose to hunt at night for a better cover in the dark. The act of hunting at night has brought an evolutionary change within them. The domestic cat has a higher amount of rods and fewer amounts of cones in their eyes.
The high number of rods allows them to absorb much light for an extra sensitive vision at night. However, the development of rods in their eyes has consequently weakened cones which prevent them from seeing vivid color details. The fewer cone muscles prevent them from changing shapes of their lenses and decreases their range of vision. As a result, cats have given up their daylight far range vision for better vision at night.
Enhanced UV Detection
Ultraviolet rays are both good and bad at the same time. Some of these rays cause harm to the skin while other forms of the same rays can help in searching for a potential meal. Cats are naturally gifted with UV ray vision, unlike us humans. Our nifty adorable pets are territorial animals that continuously keep checking on urine markings to protect their domains.
The UV ray detection allows them to see dried urine markings and spray their own scent. Furthermore, cat preys are also intelligent and often use camouflage to escape. However, UV detection gives the cat an added advantage. The ability to view low wavelength light like UV ray is advantageous for the cat when it comes to hunting out at night. The cats UV seeing ability allows her to have a better vision. Such vision is unavailable to us because our eye blocks UV.
Three-Dimensional Map
You may have faced a situation when a neighbor’s cat ran away from pitch black, dark alley the moment you came across them. The excellent night vision which helps it run away at dark is partly because of its whiskers. Cats cannot see at pretty close distances. However, the whiskers help them feel vibrations that enable them to create a three-dimensional map around it. The whiskers on their head are close to brain nerve endings.
As a result, they allow the cats to map locations quickly even in pitch black darkness. The vibration caused by dust in the air around alleys or small passages help them to make a quick escape. Cats can’t adjust their eyes and see prey right in front of them in darkness. Instead, they use vibration caused by prey to strike. While it might look like a cat has a perfect vision, they also use other body features to its advantage.
Scope Of Vision
The scope or field of vision is not only something you’ll hear in the army or your sniper shooting games. It is something natural to every animal. And contrary to popular belief, the field of perception is not about 20x zoom or 30x zoom of an object up in the distance. The scope of vision relates to the ability to see around front to back, top to bottom, and side to side. It’s important to understand that the human scope of vision is limited as compared to that of a cat.
A cat possesses a 200-degree scope of vision and humans to have only 180 degrees field of view. The convenient placement of eyes on a cat’s face is the reason for the wide angle view. Essentially, the cat can view at different angles better than a human. It might look like a cat has an almost perfect vision when it pounces at prey on its side without a glance.
Acute Hearing And Nasal Abilities
A blind individual can hear much better than an average individual. A blind individual’s guide to sensing the world around him or her is through sounds. The same is similar for our pet cats. Our cats may not be blind, but they possess higher hearing capacity than us. They rely on sounds to catch prey when their prey goes in hiding mode.
Furthermore, cats have an innate ability to twist their ears towards the source of the sound. This allows them to find prey in darkness. The better hearing ability and a good night vision make it look as though their vision is far superior to reality.
Similarly, cats have a good nose with double the number of receptors compared to a human nose. Such receptors come in handy at dark. The cats can follow the scent trail to locate an intruder or prey inside their territory. They don’t locate enemies and prey from far point with their sight. Instead, it’s their great noses that almost always play a significant role.
Conclusion
There is no denying the fact that cats have better night vision than dogs and humans. They live up to the reputation of night predators, just as their other members in the feline family.
In spite of their lack of vision in complete darkness, cats are masters when it comes to maneuvering in the fade light.
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