Emerald Eyes

If you’ve ever seen a cat’s eyes at night, you know that they almost seem to glow. The reason for this is a reflective layer behind the retina, in the back of their eyeballs, called the tapetum lucidum. It works to absorb more light, helping the cat to see better in low light conditions. In the low light, the cat’s pupils will dilate and the tapetum lucidum is more exposed This is the “glow” that you see.

Here are a few facts about cats vision:

• A cat’s night vision is far superior to that of a human. They can see quite clearly in 1/6 of the light that a human can.
• Cats are not colorblind, as is often thought, although they don’t see as many colors as humans do.
• Cats can’t see directly below their noses. If you drop something there, they will have to move their heads to see it.