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Cats As A Part Of History
Cats have been a part of the society since the early ages of Egyptian Kingdom. They meant so much that they were mummified along with the pharaohs. Perhaps one of the reasons is due to their rather supernatural abilities. One of the common questions cat owners ask is with regards to their ability to see in the dark. According to Thomas Huxley, the 19th-century British biologist claimed that the cats were very important.
This is because the cats were domesticated they help in the flourishing bees around the village by eradicating mice.
Are They Really Active Nocturnally?
The nocturnal activeness of cats is subjected to their ability to cope up with low levels of light. It is a myth that cats can see in the dark but “Darkness” is a relative term. Even humans can see in the dark, but it is added to a certain level of luminosity.
But it is certain that cats can’t see in complete darkness. However, they have some features that help them adapt to having partial vision in darkness.
Feline Vision
Cats are more similar to humans; they have the same number of color receptors as humans. Although they have the same types of cones, their color sensitivity is different from that of a human. Cat’s worlds are mildly saturated and are in the tones of Bluish-Violet, Greenish-yellow and mostly grey. The cats are crepuscular in nature. This means that they are usually more active during the dusk and hence they definitely need to have a good night vision.
There are three significant adaptations that they have gone through to be able to see in darkness.
Curved Cornea
The first one being able to take more light than the human eye.
This is due to their huge opening in the pupil. This allows a massive ray of light into the eyes.
Approximately, cats need only one-sixth of the light required by the human.
The curved cornea opens large and lets the light penetrate into it.
The Pupil opens in full circles to have maximum light entering into the eyes.
The shape of the cornea, the size of pupils and different eyes increases their night vision ability. A certain degree of light is needed for the cats to have the night vision. Their vision is found to be in tune with their motion and changes. This is considered by an adaptation of their nocturnal habits.
The Tapetum
There is an extra layer of reflective cells called Tapetum. This increases the availability of light in the retina by bouncing back the light to the sensory cells.
In total, it increases the amount of available light by 50 percent.
The Tapetum is the reason for the shiny eyes of the cats.
They are generally yellow-green in color in comparison to that of red in humans
Can be seen in various other animals too namely horses deer and dogs.
The shiny greeny part of the eye due to tapetum enhances the cat’s night vision ability. The pupils of the cats dilate well to make maximum use of all available light. The tapetum behaves like a mirror reflecting the light on the retina and then amplifying it. This enhances the cat’s ability to see in the night.
Construction of Eye
Digging deeper into the construction of the eyes of the cat, they possess 300-degree peripheral. This enables them to see almost everything around them. They are also designed to detect fast movements and tiny objects.
The cats have a large number of rods in their eyes. They are one of the two types of cells that are present in the eyes. This transforms the light into electrical impulses. The rods are the ones which are more sensitive and are responsible for the low light vision. During the daytime, thoughts are switched off. Cats suffer from near-sightedness, but despite this disorder, they are able to hunt. This is due to their higher concentration of rods.
The near-sightedness in cats is because they lack the muscles which are supposed to help the lens focus on objects as they come closer. However, they have highly sensitive whiskers and ears. These help them navigate through an obstacle present in a narrower range.
Comparison To Human Eye Function
Generally, in human eyes, the incoming light may miss the rods. When this happens, they pass through a black layer of the retina, and it is not transcribed into an electrical impulse.
In the case of cats, the missed light gets reflected back to the rod by the mirror layer. This gives another chance for the light rays to hit the rod.
Even though their visuals are a little blurry, the cats have higher concentration power. This enables them to pick even a minute change in the field of view.
The Changing Phenomenon
Have you ever wondered why the cat’s pupil looks slender during the day and is elongated inters circular shape in the night? Because of its high number of photoreceptors, they tend to reduce the amount of light entering during the day.
This is done to avoid discomfort and to provide focus. The more spherical the pupil is, the more blurring the vision is going to be. This allows more light to enter the eyes.
Ultraviolet or Black Light
In addition to their ability to see in darkness, they can also detect black light which is invisible to the human eye. So in case, the room is lit up in UV light, the cats have better visuals than a human. This comes in handy when the mammal is hunting down prey which can camouflage.
Other Senses
Whiskers
Cats rely on its vibrissae or whiskers to move around and sense object which is closer to them. They act on the principles of echolocations. This means they map the surrounding space three-dimensionally and detect vibrations based on the movement.
Ears
Apart from their whiskers, they also have great ears which complete the mapping of the space to near perfection. They can pick up low-frequency range and higher ranges of up to 64 GHz. This helps them to understand the surrounding in a much better way. Cats also point their ears towards the source of the sound.
The Olfactory
They also depend heavily on the scent to understand the environment around them. They have vomeronasal organs on top of their mouth.
Conclusion
It helps them smell chemicals. The cats are known for their ability to see in the dark. This is due to the excellent number of rod cell present in the retina which is mainly found responsive to dim light. Hence it is conclusive that cats “can” see in the dark.
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