It is believed that cats have a special vision. They are credited with seeing the other world and a lot of magical properties. In order to dispel all doubts, let's dwell on this issue in detail and examine how cats see our world, how they perceive a person and whether colors differ.
Features of the structure of the eyes
Feline vision differs from the human eye in structure, number of cones and tubules. In general, in humans and cats, the structure of the eye has many similarities. The top layer is the cornea - light refractory barrier. Beneath it is the choroid, which forms in front of the iris and pupil. The iris is a muscular ring, and the pupil is a hole in it. Behind the iris is a mineral vitreous lens. The inner shell is represented by a photosensitive retina, consisting of stick cells that perceive movement, as well as cones responsible for color perception. From the back side, the nerve endings approach the inner lining of the eye. Inside the eye is a clear thick liquid.
The type of vision in cats is binocular, due to which the animals are able to give an estimate of the distance to the object. The location of a particular object is determined by the difference in the position of the image on the retina of the left and right eyes. However, the structure of the cat's eyes has the following features:
- the cornea in the cat's eye is larger and occupies almost the entire surface of the open part;
- the shape of the cat's pupil is elongated; This feature explains the possibility of narrowing and limiting the amount of incoming light;
- between the retina and the choroid there is a tapetum (reflective membrane similar to fish scales), due to which a part of the rays is reflected on the retina;
- the cat's eye does not have a blind zone; there is a special disk with cones on this place;
- there are much more sticks around the eye, which explains the animal's ability to see in the dark.
An interesting feature of the structure of the cat's eye is the multiplicity of light reflection. Due to this, the eyes of cats glow in the dark, as well as in cases where a lantern light, for example, is induced on animals. However, who would have thought that cats in daylight see worse. This fact is explained by the great sensitivity to light. To better see the object, the cat narrows the pupils, focusing on a particular object, while the vertical pupil helps it to protect the eyes from ultraviolet radiation.
Pictures taken by each eye merge into one, but the clarity of vision in the light is worse than in the dark.
Color perception
The common belief that cats see the world in black and white is not true. In fact, they are able to distinguish certain shades, although their degree of saturation is not the same as a person sees it. If we can distinguish a lot of color shades, then cats have not so many. At the same time, almost all of them are less saturated and, most likely, even faded, enveloped in a hazy mist.
They clearly distinguish shades of blue and green, see gray and smoky tones. These colors are not accidental, due to the photoreceptors in cats, night vision is better developed, therefore the cat's eyes do not perceive the red, bright orange and yellow tones. Rather, at the expense of a smaller number of paint cones, they will approach the tones characteristic of sharp night vision.For example, a cat will look yellow in color as greenish with yellow and gray sub tones, but the color will be warm.
The color palette of the animal includes a purple color. His pet sees not too distorted. Remarkable is the fact that cats perceive colors of cold temperature better. However, the spectrum of distinguished tones directly depends on the degree of illumination, for example, in evening light the shades may seem different, therefore the animal may confuse the same orange with red.
In general, cats have not three, but two types of photoreceptor cones, which are responsible for color day vision. It is believed that they can distinguish up to 25 shades of gray, but with a color palette, the situation is worse than with neutral. This gradation is explained by the number of cones responsible for the perception of a particular color.
For any color that sees the animal, its own group of cells is responsible.
The percentage of each class of cones is different from human. That is why the photosensitivity to the components of the solar spectrum is different. However, due to the presence of tapetum, activity in daylight or artificial light is hampered. And the tapetum itself does not emit light particles, it only reflects those that exist.
In general, in addition to gray, the cat sees 6 primary colors (blue, white, yellowish, green, purple, black), and the most clearly among them they perceive blue and purple. Red, brown they merge into one color, which has a grayish impurity. They see it as if in a graphic editor they reduced the degree of brightness, squeezing color out of it in favor of neutral colors.
How do they see in the dark?
You can often hear the phrase that cats perfectly see in complete darkness. This statement is not true: for visual perception of surrounding objects at night, cat's eyes need at least a small luminous flux. Their visual acuity is much better when compared with a person, but also a large part of orientation in space is explained by the sensitivity of vibrissae, which give information due to air vibrations. Remarkable is the fact that the cat feels the slightest vibration coming from the mouse paws. To understand in which direction the prey ran, it does not need to see several times better than a man. It is enough to barely touch the ground with the vibrissae.
If we compare the vision in the dark of a man and a cat, the gain will be 6: 1 in favor of the animal or even more due to the high concentration of photoreceptors. At dusk, the pupils of the animal dilate, which allows to capture the smallest particles of light. In relation to the body, the eyes of animals are rather large, therefore cats are often called the most big-eyed pets. In the dark, the pupils seem bottomless, light is absorbed and reflected from the tapetum, after which it returns to the nerve endings.
At the same time, it seems to a person that the eyes of a cat are glowing. In the dark, the pupils are dilated, which is necessary for greater absorption of light.
Ferris Sector
Due to the structure of the eyes, it is almost impossible to hold a cat. Another couple of seconds she could bask in the sun, and after a moment she was able to jump sharply and grab the prey. Dexterity is explained by the angle of view, which is much more compared to a person. It is through it that the animal can see what is happening around. The shape of the pupil in cats may vary, depending on the strength of the light flux. It's amazing that he can change the width.
The animal perceives the world with two eyes, because of its special structure, the cat can easily move them relative to the visual axis. Each of her eyes sees 45% of the picture. The cornea has a bulge, due to which the coverage can reach 200 degrees against 180 in the human eye. The outlines of the vertical pupils can change almost instantly, which occurs under the influence of external stimuli, so the pupil can be not only round, but even slit.Cats have a wider angle of vision than humans.
Making movements with the eyes by changing the visual axis is a feature explaining the reason why a dormant animal can grab a mouse running past with lightning speed. Approximately with the same ease cats watch flies and other flying insects.
Size matters
Concerning the size of the objects that the cat sees, there are conflicting opinions. Someone is sure that the big objects located near the cat sees badly. It is emphasized that if the object is immovable, the vision is even worse. However, here you can argue: a cat, without fear, jumps onto boxes, cabinets and even a person, clawing deftly along it. If she saw only silhouettes and outlines, she could hardly have moved with great ease and grace.
Most likely, breeders who adore cats, not once noticed that the pussies are more responsive to the movement. Having planted the animal in front of him, the man blinked, and the cat immediately caught this movement, despite the fact that the eyes of the person were very close to the eyes of the pet. One could say that the animal reacts to the air flow more than to the eyes. However, if you do not blink, but look your eyes to the left and right, there is no air flow, but the cat at that moment notes the movement; what is happening is literally before his eyes. At the same time, he does not move back, does not squint, does not try to focus, and therefore, he has no problems with his eyesight. He immediately notices the movement: what are the burning hunting eyes talking about?
It is possible to argue with the opinion that animals perceive different things poorly on the screen of the monitor or smartphone. If you monitor the pets for a long time considering what is happening on the record, then he proves: they can recognize their owners on the screens and follow the movements of other animals with curiosity. There is a case when a cat bored for its dead owner watched the recording on a smartphone where it was captured for a long time. Her eyes were focused on him, she rubbed her face on the screen and purred.
As for the senses, then, of course, they add the accuracy of the worldview, so they help determine the size. In this case, the whiskers give clear information about the location, degree of distance and size of different objects. Together with them, vision is a survival mechanism that boosts hunting instincts.
The cat perfectly sees objects that are distant from her, but as they are removed, their outlines are gradually blurred.
Perception of the world
Most likely, cat breeders were faced with the fact that their pets had to literally dunk in the food that was in the animals in front of their noses. And the point here is not a bad sense of smell, but a great deal of vision. Cats can not see clearly objects that are located in front of the nose. Individuals are farsighted, clearly distinguishing objects that are located from them in the range of 70 cm to 6 m. This distance allows you to calculate the length, height and strength of the jump. However, if you follow the behavior of some individuals, you can find that they are happy and highly accurate with a paw on their "prey", playing with the tablet. Considering that it is located nearby, the size of the object is small, and a bright light comes from the screen, this may indicate that not all individuals are farsighted.
Games for cats allow a lot of experiments to show that pets react to different moving objects differently.
The opinion about how a cat sees a person is also contradictory. It is considered to be that the animal sees the owner indistinctly, but it does not focus his eyes, does not look to him or to other objects, as it is done by visually impaired people, does not move back like farsighted. The animal moves rather confidently, clumsiness is unusual for it, when there is a host or some large objects nearby. The cat very accurately calculates the accuracy of the jump, while on the windowsill. He can effortlessly jump into the window, without hitting the flower pots located nearby. It is unlikely that he would succeed if he saw only the indistinct outlines of objects and relied solely on his vibrissae. Of course, the ability to rotate the eyes helps in quick orientation, but the focus is also important.
As for attributing magical properties to cats, or the so-called sixth sense in relation to man and the surrounding world, it is explained by the presence of vibrissae on the cheeks, above the eyes, and also on the paws. They give the animal information about the danger, but not the action of otherworldly forces or a special magic look.
Neither the large size of the eyes, nor their structure in any way affect the ability of the cat to look into other worlds. Cats do not see the other world, neither dead people nor ghosts. They see us a little worse, but in general their day vision is not so bad.
See how the cats see the world in the next video.
