Your favourite felines have mesmerizingly colourful eyes, from the brightest blues to stunning greens, vivid oranges to drool-worthy coppers. However, do you know which colours they themselves can see?
A few facts before we dive in. In comparison to their human companions, cats are nearsighted and have 10 times fewer cone cells in their eyes. Cones and rods are two types of photoreceptor cells in the retina, which convert light rays into electrical signals that are then conveyed by the optic nerve to the brain, which in turn translates the signals into images that we “see”. Rods are responsible for peripheral and night vision, cones for daytime vision and perception of colour.
Now, as you may have correctly surmised, animals like cats and dogs have a far higher proportion of rod cells in their retinas than humans do, which is why they are able to navigate far better than us in the dark and don’t go bumping into objects or one another. According to the UK-based Blue Cross, cats are not nocturnal but have six to eight times more rod cells than humans. But with our higher concentration of cone cells, humans perceive a lot more colours, and more vividly, than our four-legged companions do. That, of course, is when there is enough light.
Dr Richard E. Goldstein, chief medical officer at the Animal Medical Center in New York City, told The New York Times, “A cat has the capacity to alter the intensity of light falling on its retina 135-fold, compared to tenfold in a human, with a circular pupil…. A cat’s pupils dilate in the dark, whereas their pupils constrict in the sunlight. This is a significant advantage.”
For a long time it was believed that cats could process only black and white, or shades of grey. That, however, is not entirely accurate. According to the US-based VCA Animal Hospitals, while cats cannot see every colour, there are a few that they can. VCA estimates that cats can see blue and grey at least. Some scientists believe cats can also perceive the colour yellow, though the vividity with which they see these colours is not the same as how humans see them.
Indeed, it is fascinating that while cats have such beautiful eyes, they have the ability to see only a few colours. But at least their vision, while slightly blurry compared to that of a normal-sighted human, is not confined just to black and white or grey. So, the next time you want to buy a gift for your feline friend, perhaps it would be a good idea to purchase items in a colour it can identify.
Sandy Pawpaw
Sandy Pawpaw is a fierce advocate of unleashing the animal in, and with, you.
