How do cats see in the dark?

Question

Iv alwasy wondered how my little kittys can see around the house and outside in pitch black.

Answer 1

Eats’ eyes are more sensitive to light that ours are, which means they can see a lot better in low light than we can--which is what you’d expect from a nocturnal animal. Even cats can’t see in total darkness, but they can get pretty close. And one of the more visible ways they’ve adapted to low-light conditions is revealed in those glow-in-the-dark eyes.

The glow is actually light reflected back from a layer of special cells behind the retina called the tapetum lucidum, which is Latin for “luminescent tapestry.” The retina is the light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eye. Its job is to convert light into electrical impulses that are sent to the brain. The job of the tapetum lucidum is to catch all the light that didn’t enter the retina directly and reflect it back in, so every tiny bit of light can be processed.

Add in the fact that a cat’s pupils can dilate to three times the size of ours and they also have a larger cornea, (the eye’s outermost lens) and you can see why a can has no need for light-vision goggles. The bottom line: A cat can see in conditions that are more than five times less bright than what we require.

If cats weren’t nocturnal, they probably would have round pupils like us. But as mentioned above, they can see very well in dim light. Just as we adjust out headlights from normal headlights to brights, a can’t eyes adjust to different lighting conditions. In the daytime, cats have precise control over the amount of light that reaches their eyes. This enables them to gaze out a window and zero in on a squirrel in a tree or a bird perched on a feeder.

Having eyes that reduce the pupils to slits rather than tiny circles gives the cat greater and more accurate control in different types of lighting; this ability is particularly important in bright sunlight.

Vertical slits also have another advantage over horizontal slits. Because the cat’s eyelids close at right angles to the vertical pupil, a cat can reduce the amount of light even further by bringing her eyelids closer together. Similar to the shutter on a camera, this combination of vertical slits of the pupils and the horizontal slits of the eyelids enables a cat to make the most delicate adjustments to accommodate different lighting. And these actions, in combination, protect the eyes better than sunglasses.

It’s a perfect setup for a nighttime hunter who loves to bask in the daytime sun.

Answer 2

Yes

Answer 3

night vision

Answer 4

They have an extra layer of light sensing cells in the back of there eyes which means they can see more with much less light.  

Answer 5

Easy.  They're demons.

Answer 6

http://www.cathealth.com/CatEyes.htm

Short-ish answer: Rods and cones and receptors in our eyes and in our cats' eyes.  Rods are basically responsible for night vision and cones are basically responsible for color vision and visual acuity.  

Cats have a lot more rods than humans, this allows them to see better in low light but they have fewer cones so they see limited colors (red-green colorblindness, they are not entirely colorblind) and they don't see detail as well.

Plus that reflective bit (tapetum lucidum) bounces the light back through the rods again, giving them a chance to pick up even more light from the environment.  

But they can't see if there's no light at all.  

Answer 7

Your cats are your natural superiors in the eye department

http://www.abf90.dial.pipex.com/bco/fact...

Answer 8

they have special eyes thats why their eyes glow when you take a pic or record them in a video