Have you ever wondered if cats can appreciate the same colors as humans? While it’s true that cats can see some of the same colors as us, their vision is quite different from ours.
Cats can register colors in the blue-violet, green, and yellow spectrums, giving them a limited range of color perception compared to humans. They can also detect light in the near ultraviolet range, which is invisible to us. This article will explore why cats can see specific colors better than others and how their vision can help them survive in the wild.
Overview of cats’ vision
Cats can see much better than humans at night and even detect light near the ultraviolet range, which is invisible to us. This heightened night vision helps them hunt for food and avoid potential threats in the dark.
Their day vision could be better. However, their eyes can detect colors in the blue-violet, green, and yellow spectrums. Cats can also see objects with more clarity from a distance than humans due to their enhanced depth perception and increased ability to identify movement.
Cats have a wide field of view, meaning they can see more than humans with less head movement. They can observe an area up to 200 degrees horizontally compared to just 180 degrees for humans. Additionally, cats can swiftly change focus between two different objects while still being able to track moving objects accurately due to their superior binocular vision. This is especially helpful when hunting prey or avoiding predators in the wild.
How can cats see color differently from humans?
Humans have three types of cone cells in the back of our eyes that allow us to perceive a full range of colors from red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet wavelength ranges.
Cats only possess two types of cone cells – blue-violet (short) and green (middle) – which limits their perception of colors compared to ours. As a result, cats can’t differentiate between colors such as reds and oranges because they appear grayish-brown from the combination of both visible colors.
Colors that cats can and can’t see
Although cats are limited to seeing fewer colors than humans, they can still appreciate most shades of blues and greens quite vividly. When it comes to purples, though, they appear more muted or duller because they look like various shades of gray depending on the angle they’re seen from due to their limited cone cells’ sensitivity range.
On top of that, cats also have a poor perception of yellows since they look incredibly bright even during low light conditions due to their distinct wavelength range compared to other colors.
Why can cats detect specific colors better than others?
Cats can better differentiate between blues and greens because those are within their preferred visible color spectrum range, as mentioned earlier in this article. In contrast, yellows appear too starkly vivid because they lie outside their preferred visible color range, resulting in poor color perception when looking directly at them under low light conditions.
Additionally, purples appear muted or grayish-brown due to overlapping short and medium cone cell sensitivities causing difficulty when attempting to distinguish contrasts among those specific wavelength ranges.
How does their vision help them survive in the wild?
Cats’ unique visual capabilities give them an edge when hunting prey or avoiding predators while exploring the wild due to their impressive peripheral vision. Cats can also quickly focus on faraway objects while simultaneously tracking multiple moving targets. They have this unique ability through their enhanced binocular field. Cats don’t need to turn its head all over the place, trying to scan around constantly as we would.
Furthermore, their heightened night vision allows them to seek out potential prey hiding amongst dark areas efficiently since light becomes more apparent for them, allowing spot details easier under dimmer environments that we wouldn’t be able to make out clearly.
Conclusion
Despite not enjoying a full spectrum of vibrant hues as we do, cats still experience beauty through nature by using other senses like hearing, touching, smelling, etc. Along with what little color they actually perceive, it is enough to help them navigate around safely, hunt successfully, and find aesthetically pleasing places like any other creatures, including humans.
