Do cats really see in the dark?

The vision of cats is very different from ours.

They locate themselves much better than us in the dark, giving the impression that they are able to see in complete darkness, but this is not the case.

In reality, their eyes have developed during their evolution an extreme sensitivity to the slightest gleam in order to allow them to hunt at night.

But without any light, they are just as blind as we are.

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eyes of predators

Like many other nocturnal predators, cats have a large concentration of photoreceptor cells called rods in their retinas.

Rods are responsible for night vision and peripheral vision;

they detect brightness and shades of gray.

The other retinal photoreceptors, called cones, are responsible for daytime vision and color perception.

Cats, like dogs, have far more rods than cones, unlike humans.

Our four-legged friends see better than us in the dark, have a wider field of vision, but distinguish colors less well and see less well from afar.

To perceive the same details as a human at 20 m distance, cats must approach 2 to 4 m on average.

Cats' night vision is also aided by the

, Latin for "shining carpet", a reflective layer at the back of the eye that allows more light to be reflected back to the retina.

It is this ocular structure that makes cats' eyes glow in the dark.

However, it has the disadvantage of blurring the sharpness of the images perceived, creating interference between incident light and reflected light.

Mustaches to see in the dark

Finally, your cat's ability to hunt small animals in the middle of the night is due to other parts of its anatomy unrelated to its eyes: its long vibrissae, located on its muzzle and above its eyes.

They are considered the third most important sensory organ for felines before sight.

Sensitive to variations in the air in its immediate environment, they allow the cat to pinpoint any moving object nearby, allowing it to pounce on its prey without even seeing it.

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