Features of the structure of cat's eyes
Well-known fact: “A cat can see perfectly in complete darkness.” For a long time, scientists have been trying to figure out the reason why cats, unlike people, see in pitch darkness. According to the results of the study, this feature in cats lies in the special anatomical structure of their eyes. So, in the dark, the pupils of cats dilate (also happens in the process of hunting or excitement), and in order to focus on a specific object, the pupils of the animal narrow. In addition, the vertical structure of the pupil allows cats to protect their eyes during the day from sunlight and ultraviolet radiation.
But cats' eyesight is not perfect. The animal sees poorly during the day, compared to a human. Bright light is unpleasant for cats and they are very sensitive to it. That’s why cats see everything blurry and unclear during the daytime.
How far can he see
The maximum distance at which a cat can clearly see objects is 60 meters, but to him an image at such a distance looks like a solid blur. The range of vision is limited to a distance of 20 meters. Scientists explain this feature by the fact that the predator hunts from an ambush, and there is no need to distinguish distant objects.
At too close a distance, cats also do not perceive what is in front of their eyes. An object brought closer to the muzzle than 50 cm is recognized by the animal’s senses of touch. This feature should be kept in mind when playing with your pet.
Do cats see the other world?
Many people are sure that their pets are able to see the other world, which is inaccessible to the human eye. This statement was due to the abnormal behavior of cats. Thus, owners often observe how their pets seem to be peering into something invisible, and then suddenly jump up and run away, demolishing everything in their path.
This behavior of cats can be explained simply. Almost all the changes that occur around are perceived by pets with their ears, and after looking at the picture, they are able to be startled by the slightest rustle, which leads to a similar reaction.
There is a sign that a black cat has magical powers (protection), and if you get such a pet, then trouble will never touch the owner. The color of a cat is not a guarantee of certain abilities, so this sign is just a superstition. A pet’s energy can be negative or positive, which also does not depend on color. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Siamese or a Thai cat, all pets have the same abilities, the same applies to tricolor cats.
It is also known that cats perceive ultrasounds that humans cannot perceive. The animal perceives light waves faster than humans, but whether cats see the souls of the dead or the biofield remains a mystery.
The energy of cats is calming for humans. By placing a furry pet in his arms, the owner can bring his emotional state back to normal. You need to stroke your cat with a positive attitude and fur.
Negative human energy is felt by cats; they can hiss and scratch.
Unusual cat pupils
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:
What cats see in the mirror and on TV
If you bring a cat to a mirror, it behaves somewhat inappropriately - it begins to hiss, flatten its ears, scratch, and fight with itself. In fact, pets see themselves in the mirror, but they do not understand that they are in the reflection. They are afraid that the reflection does not produce any tactile or auditory vibrations, which causes this behavior.
As for TV, zoologists say that cats only see flickering on the monitor. The moving objects on the pet screen are mesmerizing. Many owners have noticed that cats love to watch programs about animals. Scientists cannot explain this phenomenon.
However, the pet cat of the editor of ezoterist.ru happily jumps on the mouse cursor, which quickly moves across the monitor, apparently mistaking it for a fat midge.
What colors do cats see?
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, the animal is able to distinguish the color gamut. What colors can cats see? Fluffies are available in blue, green and gray tones. They confuse yellow with white and distinguish purple. Red, brown and orange are not available to them.
How does a cat see a person?
Cats see their owners as they are, with the exception of the color scheme. If a person is at a distance, then the pet sees only a silhouette. But up close, the pet can clearly see the owner’s face. In general, cats navigate solely by smell.
As for human energy, not every cat is able to feel it. A negative person will push the animal away from him, and it will not accept him. But the reaction to a person with a bad energy field will vary from cat to cat. Therefore, you should not be surprised if one cat begins to hiss, and the other purrs and rubs.
Many owners notice that only felines of a certain color take root with them. This phenomenon is not explained in any way by scientists. But it is clear that cats live only in conditions that are comfortable for themselves, so if the owner has created unfavorable conditions for the pet, then he may leave the house and never return. Perhaps the owner had a negative attitude towards the pet, and he felt it. Also, an allergy to animal fur can be a signal for a cat to leave the house, apartment and choose other housing.
Many cats go to bed next to their owner. According to expert research, sleeping with your pet at night is beneficial. There are many speculations about why cats lie on humans. Often the owner notices that the pet tries to fall asleep on a certain part of the body. It has been proven that a pet is able to feel the outgoing vibrations of an unhealthy organ and heal it. There is also a belief that a cat takes energy from a person, but only negative, but each owner decides for himself whether he can sleep with a cat.
It used to be that cats had visual acuity. This statement is misleading. Felines have a phenomenal sense of smell, but they cannot boast of visual acuity. Their eyes, in proportion to their body, are quite large. That is why the eyes of cats are credited with magical abilities to charge people with energy and take away negativity. Dogs, for example, cannot boast of such features.
By the behavior of a cat you can determine what kind of energy a person has. If the aura, soul and person are generally kind, then the pet will treat him kindly. The relationship between the cat and the owner is close, so if the other has a headache, the pet will try in every possible way to calm it down (purr, climb on his head). In this case, you can take the purr to rest in bed and place it next to your head on the pillow. After sleep, headaches are guaranteed to disappear. Not all cats can perform this treatment, but only those with positive energy.
Cats love small children, because a child has positive energy. And also, importantly, a positive attitude towards the cat.
Ghosts and goblins
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 a brownie. It has long been believed that when a brownie wants to warn the owner about danger, he does this through a cat, with whom he has a warm relationship; they have one task: to protect the house and its inhabitants.
How to behave?
- Do not scare the animal, follow further;
- The animal quickly calmed down, everything was fine, there was no danger;
- The animal continues to be nervous, which means the area needs to be treated ;
- Read the prayer, sprinkle it with holy water, put an icon there.
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.
Myopia and farsightedness
The cat sees objects clearly at a distance of half a meter to seven meters. If you put a piece of food in front of her, she will find it by smell, but not by appearance.
She may not be able to discern the outline of the object she is holding in her paws, but if it moves, her reaction will be instantaneous, and all ten claws will pierce the victim. Therefore, do not try to pull your hand out of the cat’s paws if it has captured it as prey. This puts you at risk of getting even more scratches and bites. It's better to distract her with another rustling object nearby.
At a distance of more than seven meters, objects become blurry, and sharpness deteriorates as they move away. At the same time, cats are able to notice a moving object even at a distance of half a kilometer.
Excursion into history
As you know, the first people to domesticate cats were the ancient Egyptians. Ever since the wild predator began to live side by side with humans, it never ceases to amaze. The naive inhabitants of Egypt believed that she would serve them - to catch mice. It was for this purpose that they were tamed.
© shutterstock
However, very soon they themselves began to serve and worship the cat, considering it a supreme being, almost a deity. People sculpted animal figures and used them during rituals. The dead were buried not just anywhere, but in tombs - next to the pharaohs.
Many things surprised people about cats. For example :
- They know how to appear as if from nowhere and go as if to nowhere. People don’t see them for a long time, and then they come.
- They walk on their own, demonstrating complete independence.
- They do not obey the will of the owner, like, for example, dogs, but act as they please.
Perhaps cats behave this way because they feel protected by the other world and higher powers. People have thought about this more than once. In the Middle Ages, it was for this reason that cats were burned at the stake along with witches. Each person considered it almost his duty to destroy as many tailed creatures as possible.
They were perceived as messengers of the other world, assistants of Satan, and evil spirits. It's scary to imagine how many cute cats have become victims of their reputation. Black individuals suffered especially. It was the mass extermination of representatives of the cat family that largely provoked plague epidemics.
After the mass extermination of animals, there was no one to destroy the main carriers of the infection - rodents. It turns out that people, having paid for their stupidity and cruelty, themselves went to the other world.
Time passed, and barbaric methods became a thing of the past. However, even today many believe that cats can see objects of the other world. This frightens some, but delights others. It is difficult to find a person who would be completely indifferent to cats.
© shutterstock
Objective reasons why cats sometimes behave strangely, as if they see something
Meanwhile, cat behavior may not have a mystical background at all. Pets' senses are much more sensitive than humans . Cats are naturally gifted with extremely fine hearing, so they often freeze and simply listen to very faint sounds and rustles made by insects or rodents, which are not picked up by human ears, but are perfectly perceived by animals. Wariness or aggressiveness may arise due to unknown or incomprehensible odors. The vomeronasal organ (Jacobson's organ) found in cats, located in the mouth (on the roof of the mouth), allows one to detect even weak and diffuse odors at a considerable distance.
All cats are predators, but not all representatives of this glorious tribe can hunt real prey necessary for food. Domestic cats are sometimes forced to be content with little and choose small flies, mosquitoes, or even fluff and dust particles flying in the air as potential victims. All this moves and sways excitingly, but is not always visible to the owner’s eye.
It was for the ability to see in the dark that the cat was endowed with mystical qualities
The vision of domestic mustaches is arranged in a unique and surprising way, because they are able to see in pitch darkness. This is explained by the presence of a special additional layer behind the retina, which reflects even the weakest light.
Finally, naturally playful murkas and murziks can get bored. In an attempt to entertain themselves, they perform incredible somersaults in the air, hiss, snort, and also rush randomly around the rooms.
Our previous albino cat was completely deaf, but still managed to catch mice. He couldn't hear them squeaking or scratching, but he could feel the vibrations they made as they moved.
The iris is the anterior part of the uvea of the eye.
The dog's iris consists of blood vessels and muscles (constrictor and dilator). These muscles allow you to regulate the size of the pupil. Which in turn allows you to regulate the amount of light entering the eye. So, in bright light, the pupil narrows greatly so as not to illuminate the image on the retina, and in twilight it expands as much as possible so that as much light as possible hits the retina. The same operating principle was used to create the camera aperture.
Iris and ciliary body
Cat iris
