The sensory organs of cats and cats are similar to the human ones, but they function in a slightly different way. Do cats distinguish colors? Feelings of the animal are intended primarily to aid in hunting. Even a pet that lives on everything ready has a keen perception of the hunter.
Night vision
The eyes of the cat in relation to body size are simply huge. They are much more susceptible to light than the human organs of vision. There are significant differences between the vision of a person and an animal, and it is not entirely correct to speak of the owner of an excellent vision that he “sees like a cat”. Representatives of cats see remarkably in poor lighting: they need about 7 times less light than a person. But bright light, on the contrary, complicates their visual perception.
This is one of the typical vision features of our furry pals. It is explained by the special structure of the organs of vision. Behind the cat's eye retina is a reflective shell resembling fish scales - tapetum. It covers the fundus, 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 is in no way related to this feature.
Features of feline perception
The presence of tapetum lucidum provides the cat with good night vision, but it also complicates visual activity in bright light. That is why in bright light the animal does not immediately discern anything in front of itself. Cat eyes “glow” thanks to the same reflective layer, and to achieve such an effect you need at least the smallest light source.
In pitch darkness it is not observed. The explanation is simple: the tapetum only reflects the 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 not far from each other and in the same plane, the images of one and the second eye are similar, but not exactly the same. This difference provides a three-dimensional final picture, that is, three-dimensional. In other words, the animal's vision is binocular.
Do cats distinguish colors?
In the process of evolution, nocturnal predators perfectly adapted to twilight vision: they notice even a 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 wrong.
Animals can distinguish between 6 basic tones and many shades of gray - up to 25. Cats, like humans, are trichromats: they also have 3 types of cones. But their color perception is very different from normal human, more reminiscent of color blindness. What are the shades of flowers distinguished by a cat? They can clearly see different shades of green and blue, but red can be perceived by them as green, and purple as a shade of blue. Of course, the rich palette of colors and shades that Homo sapiens perfectly sees is inaccessible to the cat family.
Myopia or hyperopia?
The visual acuity of a healthy person is 1.0, while in a cat this indicator can reach only 0.2 - 0.1. In other words, what a person can see at a distance of 60 meters, a cat distinguishes from only 6. Do cats distinguish colors, we have already noted above. Nature is prudent: for a good hunt, a small animal needs more the ability to see closely located objects.
Intense colors and small details are not available to the night hunter, but he does not need them too much. But at times he sees better in the dark. Although excellent night vision has the opposite aspect. Do cats distinguish colors in normal lighting? In the afternoon, they see like people with impaired green-red perceptions. They distinguish blue well, but do not find much difference between red, green and brown.
Interesting Facts
If you carefully monitor your pet, you will notice that he reacts to horizontal movements much more readily than to vertical ones. The 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 is more likely to notice objects moving in a horizontal plane.
The next interesting feature of feline organs of vision is the lack of muscles necessary to regulate the shape of the lens. For this reason, they cannot focus their eyes on an overly close subject, like people. To make out, they have to move away.
A cat is able to catch a rapidly roaming rodent, while a slowly moving object often looks completely motionless for her. Here they are, especially the vision of those who "walk on their own"!