In the process of communicating with furry beauties, owners regularly become eyewitnesses that these creatures have good eyesight. Vision helps representatives of the cat family quickly see their enemies, calculate the distance to prey, and navigate well in the dark. It is not surprising that owners are interested in how cats see, whether their pets’ vision differs from human vision.
Looking into the eyes of his pet, the owner can definitely say that the vision of furry animals is not similar to the vision of the human world. Even the obvious difference in the structure of the visual organs in humans and cats indicates a significant difference in the perception of the surrounding space.
The cat's eyes occupy a significant part of the muzzle, have a convex shape and are located deep in the skull. Due to this peculiar structure, eye movements are limited, therefore, in order to examine side objects, the animal must turn its neck. However, a cat’s vision is still greater than that of a human, and is about 200 degrees due to the convex structure of the visual organs.
Zoologists have a scientific understanding of how cats see our world. It is known that the vision of representatives of the cat family is of the binocular type. In this case, the areas that the animals see overlap in such a way that they allow an object to be observed with both eyes at the same time. This type of vision of the surrounding space is important for orientation and is indispensable in hunting; it allows you to accurately determine the location of prey.
Pets received a stereoscopic type of vision from their ancient ancestors. Being predators, representatives of the feline family have a three-dimensional vision of the surrounding world, which helps them when hunting. With the help of features in the structure of their eyes, they are able to accurately determine not only the distance to the desired object, but also react to moving objects, especially if they move on a horizontal surface.
Many owners have noticed more than once when playing how a cat shakes its head up and down, preparing to jump or attack some object that interests it. It is believed that in this way the angle of view changes, and the animal more accurately calculates the distance to the prey. Thanks to this unusual mechanism, the predator’s jumps always reach their goal.
Pets do not see stationary objects very well. But objects moving on a horizontal surface immediately become the subject of attention. This is due to the genetically fixed hunting prey of all cats - rodents that move horizontally.
When looking at a cat, people most often pay attention to the structure of the pupil. Unlike the round human one, cats have a vertical pupil. In good lighting, bright sunlight, the pupil becomes like a thin vertical line. If the lighting is insufficient, the pupil dilates greatly, allowing large quantity Sveta. This property developed in the process of evolution, helping to track prey at any time of the day and in different light conditions.
Unlike the human eye, cats have a third eyelid that serves a protective function. It protects the eye from mechanical damage and drying out. It is thanks to the presence of the third eyelid that a cat can look for a long time without blinking.
The reason why cats see in the dark is the structure of the retina of a cat's eyes. Cats have the same retinal receptors as humans: rods and cones. However, the cones responsible for color perception in cats are approximately 20 - 25 times smaller than the rods. The visual organs of nocturnal predators are equipped with a large number of light-sensitive receptors, allowing them to navigate in low light conditions.
A layer of a special substance (tapetum) lining the back wall of the retina acts like a mirror, reflecting light that hits the rods twice. Due to this feature, a cat’s vision in the dark is more acute than that of other animals and humans. It is the tapetum that causes the mystical glow of the eyes of these animals in the dark.
The idea that cats see in complete darkness is not supported by scientific research on this issue. In fact, in absolute darkness without light sources, cats also cannot distinguish objects and also lose visual acuity, like the human eye. However, in poor lighting conditions, the visual function of furry pets works much more productively than humans. This is why domestic cats love darkened rooms and twilight so much.
On bottom photo shows how a cat sees in the dark Whether cats see in the dark depends on the level of light. It is believed that in low-light conditions, a cat's visual acuity is approximately seven times higher than that of a human. This feature is due to the genetic development of representatives of the cat family, whose hunting occurred at night. In conditions of twilight, dark forests, and swamps, acute vision is a prerequisite for a fruitful hunt.
While watching their pets, owners repeatedly notice that at night cats can navigate the room completely freely, do not bump into foreign objects, and successfully hunt for rodents. The main merit of this behavior is not only good vision in the dark, but also the animal’s sense of smell and excellent spatial memory.
To learn how cats see, watch this video:
It is generally accepted that cats only see close objects well. Scientific research by ophthalmologists confirms this theory: cats are indeed myopic. How do cats see objects at a distance? It is believed that animals can distinguish objects at a distance of up to 20 meters. The cat practically does not see everything that is located further than this distance.
The bottom photo shows how a cat sees from a distance Zoologists associate this feature with the fact that cats, as a rule, hunt from ambush, and with this hunting method it is not important to distinguish objects located far away.
A peculiarity of a cat's vision is the fact that the animal has difficulty seeing objects located “under the nose”, at a distance of about half a meter from the muzzle.
At such a close distance, furry pets no longer have their visual organs working, but their olfactory organs and whiskers, scanning the movement of air.
This feature should be taken into account when playing, placing a bright teasing toy at a distance greater than 50 cm from the animal.
An interesting fact is how cats see our world in color. After all, it is known that many animals perceive surrounding objects in black and white shades. This “old” movie doesn’t apply to cats. Fluffy pets are endowed with color vision. However, unlike human color perception, representatives of the cat family do not see all colors, but can distinguish a rich spectrum of tones.
For a long time it was believed that pets could only distinguish between many shades. gray(about 25). This theory was based on the fact that cats most often hunt rodents (various species of mice and rats), colored gray-brown. It is shades of gray that a cat can distinguish in low light conditions.
Modern science not unreasonably believes that cats are able to see many other colors, but not as well as humans. For example, on a clear summer day, the animal distinguishes blue, green and purple colors. Yellow and white get confused in pets. Cats cannot distinguish all shades of red, brown and orange.
For full life and in a successful hunt, they do not need to identify surrounding objects by color, because the animal does not attach any importance to what shade the object is painted.
When playing with a pet, the question involuntarily arises of how cats see people. No thorough scientific research has been carried out on this matter, but there is an opinion that animals perceive humans through both vision and smell. Some zoologists believe that cats see humans as a larger relative who takes care of them, feeds them and looks after them.
Based on the characteristics of vision, many scientists are inclined to believe that with close contact and at a distance of more than 6 meters, the pet sees the owner as a blurry object and is guided by smell.
The vision of furry pets is a unique, evolutionarily developed survival mechanism in any conditions. Thanks to the unique structure of their visual organs and the ability to recognize potential prey in poor lighting conditions, cats are rightfully considered the most successful hunters among animals. Knowing the peculiarities of our pets’ visual perception of the world around us will help the owner better understand his furry friend.
Cats have lived alongside humans for almost 10,000 years. But during this time the animal did not completely become domestic; it remained as mysterious as before. There are many signs, beliefs and superstitions associated with them. They say they see the supernatural. Indeed, sometimes an animal looks where there is nothing and tries to catch it. What's the big deal here, what do cats see? Let's try to figure it out.
Cats are nocturnal animals. They see at night 6 times better than us. This opportunity is given to them by a “mirror” located on the wall of the retina. The light absorbed by the pupil, which is significantly dilated at night, hits the “mirror” and is reflected and transmitted to the nerve fibers. This is how cats get a high-quality night picture. It is because of these reflective abilities that the animal's eyes glow in night photographs.
A person does not have such an opportunity, but during the day we see better. Since daylight is bright, the predator’s pupil turns into a narrow strip so as not to damage the sensitive retina and the animal distinguishes objects blurry.
The vision features of cats have always attracted attention. Not only from a scientific point of view. Their ability to see what is invisible to us has created many myths, legends, and horror stories, which we will discuss below.
Despite this, in Rus' these animals were considered an expensive gift: cats saved the harvest from rodents, served as a symbol of well-being, and protected the house from otherworldly forces. They became the heroes of many fairy tales, nursery rhymes and proverbs.
This video records a case where a cat clearly saw a brownie, look at her reaction:
While watching your pet, you sometimes notice how his gaze suddenly turns into emptiness. For example, in an empty corner, on a sofa, on a windowsill. She looks as if someone is sitting there. The animal can suddenly jump into this place and meow.
They say: predators see the ghost of someone who recently died in the house, but did not have time to go to another world or the brownie. It has long been believed that when a brownie wants to warn the owner about danger, he does this through the cat with whom he is in a relationship. warm relations, they have one task: to protect the house and its inhabitants.
How to behave?
Such advice is given by superstitious people. However, do not forget about the special sensitivity of these creatures. Perhaps she just hears what is happening behind the wall, so she reacts in a similar way.
If you take a pet into your home in order to protect it, or want to get a reliable guard against diseases, troubles and ill-wishers, choose the right kitten.
In Rus', animals were selected according to the color of the owner's hair. Now experts recommend relying on the color of the animal itself, depending on the following characteristics:
When you bring a kitten into the house, pay attention: he does not sleep, does not play, refuses to eat, which means he is not welcome. It’s better to return the baby back, take another one, he will be of little help.
Furballs can cause trouble. First of all this dangerous diseases: rabies, helminthiasis, lichen, toxoplasmosis. They can be transmitted to humans in certain cases, some of them are deadly.
In terms of energy, well-being in the home, and good luck, animals sometimes bring trouble, as evidenced by the following beliefs:
Thus, the cute animal can cause trouble. Believe this, do not have an animal at home.
The most interesting thing is that the cat does not even realize that its manners, gestures and behavior play such a role in the life of the owner. Still, a cat is an animal; it has the natural instincts necessary to survive in the wild.
Therefore, some of her habits can tell us about the weather and other phenomena:
It is believed that cats sense human energy. If an animal is affectionate towards guests: asking to be held, cuddled to their feet, then they came with good intentions. If he runs away from them or hisses, expect a catch.
The mustachioed friend is an assistant in literally everything. But to see signs in his every movement is to doom yourself to a restless life. Love your pets, treat them with full responsibility, then they will give you affection, joy, comfort, keep you company and you won’t care what cats see: ghosts or brownies, because they are already a member of your family and a friend.
In this video, Alexey Trekhlebov will tell you what cats can see that people cannot:
Have you heard that cats are the best-eyed pets? Someone calculated that if a person had the same ratio between the size of the eyes and the rest of the body, we would look at the world with “saucers” about 20 centimeters in diameter!
What would look ridiculous and even frightening in our country only adds charm to cats, and most importantly, hunting opportunities. After all, the way cats see is one of the main keys to a predator’s success.
Due to the fact that cats' eyes are located quite close, the fields of vision of the animal's left and right eyes intersect. Like us, they see the same picture with both eyes, and this is called binocular vision. The brain perceives the image as three-dimensional, stereoscopic, so the cat can perfectly assess the shape of an object, its size, and most importantly, the distance to it.
At the same time, the angle of binocular vision in a cat reaches 140 degrees, and the total viewing angle is 200 degrees versus “human” 180. And this ability to see “wider” is the first difference between cat vision and human vision. It gives more opportunities to the little hunter.
Cat owners often pay attention to the fact that their pets do not immediately find a tasty morsel placed right in front of their nose. This is another feature of how cats see.
The prey is unlikely to allow the predator to come close to take a closer look and decide whether to grab it or not. It is important to spot potential food from a distance and develop the right tactics to emerge victorious from the fight. Therefore, most clearly a cat sees objects located from it at a distance of 75 centimeters to 6 meters. This is enough to calculate the length, height and force of the decisive jump.
The maximum distance at which a cat can see is about 60 meters, but at such a distance objects appear blurry in front of it, as if in a haze. In this case, another hunting talent comes to the aid of the mustachioed one: seeing a moving target is better than a stationary one.
It is believed that cats are able to notice movement at a distance of up to 900 meters - moving boundary detectors located in its brain are responsible for this. The tailed ones know for sure: to move means to give oneself away. That is why they themselves always freeze when something worries them.
By the way, a mouse has a better chance of escaping a cat’s claws if it runs along a vertical surface, that is, not along the ground, but along a wall or along a tree trunk. Cats perceive objects moving in a horizontal plane much more sharply. That's why our pets are more willing to kick balls around the floor than to catch candy wrappers on a string, which their owners shake up and down in front of the cat's noses.
Cats can show their best vision at night - here they have practically no equal. Let's make a reservation right away, we are talking about darkness, and not complete darkness. Where light does not penetrate at all, neither cats nor people see. But even on a moonless night, cats, according to various estimates, see from 6 to 10 times better than humans.
This is possible thanks to three features of cat eyes. Firstly, a high concentration of rods - photoreceptors responsible for night vision. Secondly, due to the tapetum - a special “mirror” layer of the choroid of the eye, which sends back photons that have passed through the retina and forces them to act on the rods again, resulting in a double effect.
And finally, thanks to the ability of a cat's pupils to dilate in the dark, capturing the smallest particles of light. Therefore, the night world seen through a cat's eyes is much more distinct and contrasting than what we see.
Cats have not three, like ours, but two types of cones in their eyes - photoreceptors responsible for color daytime vision. Therefore, the color picture of the mustachioed world differs from ours. There is no doubt that cats are familiar with black and white. It is believed that cats are able to distinguish up to two and a half dozen shades of gray.
But the question of what other colors are available to cats still causes controversy among scientists. Some people believe that cats don’t know green. Others, on the contrary, are sure that green and blue, along with gray, make up the cat’s palette.
Be that as it may, cats are unlikely to be upset because they see the world not as bright as we do. Mustaches have no need to distinguish colors, because they do not carry any vital information about prey or the enemy.
But cats learn a lot of interesting things about themselves with the help of their whiskers. Vibrissae growing on the head and paws are also responsible for how cats see. These special hairs help them assess the distance of individual objects, recognize the presence of other creatures nearby, sense movement and even “measure” temperature.
Nature has made sure that cats that are blinded in early age, could “see” better with their whiskers - the whiskers of such animals become a third longer than those of their sighted fellow tribesmen. They also have an increase in the number of neurons in their brains responsible for touch and hearing.
So, despite some nuances, by and large, cats see much better than us.
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 cats' eyes, scientists realized how differently four-legged meows see the world.
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 humans 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.
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 has corrected the conclusions: since there are cones in the eye, therefore, color scheme the animal is able to distinguish. What colors can cats see? Fluffies are available in blue, green and gray tones. They confuse yellow with white, they differentiate purple. Red, brown and orange are not available to them.
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.
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. Thus, the once necessary improvement of the 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.
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 of spirits, and in the souls of the dead coming to the house.
The furry pets' behavior only confirmed man's belief in the existence of otherworldly forces, although cat behavior has rather prosaic reasons. Here's a typical cat behavior that might make you think it's seeing a ghost:
arching of the back and arched tail - but doesn’t an animal have the right to express its own fear with such a look?
a wary snort is heard - probably the cat smelled a new, not entirely pleasant smell;
the animal stares at an empty space and stares there for a long time - maybe the animal heard an ultrasound or was thinking about an early dinner?
the cat hisses and runs away from the room - the animal could smell a rodent or someone else’s cat running past;
It can be assumed that cats vision allows them to perceive what the human eye cannot see. But whether they can actually sense the presence of a dead soul nearby, or whether this is simply the behavior of the animal, remains a mystery. In any case, the owner should be attentive to the cat and its perception of the human world.
Sometimes the owner becomes curious about what the cat actually sees and how he perceives the world and people around him. And this curiosity is justified - the vision of cats and humans is very different.
The structure of a cat's eye has some characteristic differences from the anatomy of the human eye:
A cat's vision is characterized by the following parameters:
Cats have color vision, but it is different from human vision. Photoreceptors of daytime vision - cones located in the retina - are responsible for color perception. Cats do not have cones that perceive shades of red, so they do not perceive red, brown, burgundy, and orange shades. At the same time, cats perceive shades of blue and green, and about 25 shades of gray are distinguished.
Cats do not perceive shades of red due to the lack of corresponding receptors in the retina
Cats cannot see in complete darkness. Like humans, cats require lighting in order to see surrounding objects; To see clearly at dusk, a cat needs 10 times less light than a human.
A cat only needs a small light source to see in the dark.
Also, compared to humans, the cat’s retina contains a larger number of rods - receptors for twilight vision. The ratio of rods to cones in a cat is 25:1, while in humans it is 4:1.
Enhancing twilight vision is the tapetum layer, located behind the retina and reflecting incoming light back onto the retina. Thus, each quantum of light stimulates the retinal receptors twice, which allows the cat to clearly distinguish surrounding objects in conditions of poor lighting.
The twilight vision of a cat is much more effective than that of a human, and makes it possible to hunt at night.
Due to the presence of a layer of tapetum, the cat's eyes reflect light and appear glowing in the dark. At the same time, the eyes of blue-eyed cats glow red in the dark, and green-eyed cats glow green.
Cat's eyes reflect light so they appear to glow
The cat clearly sees people at a distance of up to 20 m, and if the person is further away, she only sees a silhouette. But in order to identify a person, a cat also uses smell and hearing.
A cat identifies a person using sight, smell and hearing
In some cases, observing attacks of unprovoked excitement in a cat, the owner is inclined to associate them with the influence of paranormal factors. It is often said that cats see the spirits of the dead or play with brownies. But as a rule, the cat simply hears sounds or smells that are inaccessible to human perception, and reacts to them.
The cat picks up sounds that are inaccessible to the human ear, but they are not at all supernatural
Many phenomena, for example, electromagnetic fields, ultrasonic waves, radiation, are imperceptible to the human senses, but perhaps the cat perceives them and reacts accordingly.
The cat in the mirror clearly sees its image, but does not identify itself with it. Moreover, a flat and odorless moving image can frighten a cat. Sometimes cats mistake their image in the mirror for the presence of another animal in the room and try to play with it.
Sometimes cats perceive a reflection as another animal
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