If you’ve ever seen a cat with slit-shaped pupils in their eyes, it is so they absorb less light in that moment. However, cats can actually use the muscles in their eyes to control the level of light which their eyes are subjected to. Our pupils involuntarily dilate and contract to allow different levels of light into our eyes, for example contracting in bright settings to allow less light in and protect our eyes from damage. This is because we are naturally active in daytime, making the most of daylight, and therefore don’t rely on tapetum lucidum to improve our night vision. Unlike cats, humans don’t have a reflective layer at the lack of the eye. Their eyes actually act as two little torches, guiding the way when they’re hunting in the dark. The light reflecting out of the cat’s eye is what we see when their eyes appear to be glowing in the dark. The tapetum lucidum also absorbs any light which escapes the retina, giving cats vision almost 50% better than they would otherwise have. There is a reflective structure at the back of a cat’s – or other nocturnal animal’s – eye which acts as a mirror, bouncing light off of it and reflecting it back out of the animal’s eye. This is why other nocturnal animals also have eyes which appear to glow in the dark. This is because they are nocturnal animals, meaning they hunt in the dark, and the phenomenon of their reflective eyes (called tapetum lucidum) boosts their night vision significantly. As lovely an explanation as this is, we now actually know the science behind the phenomenon of glowing eyes!Ĭats’ eyes glow in the dark because they reflect light. Thousands of years of ago, Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Greeks believed, respectively, that cats could capture sunlight during a sunset and hold it in their eyes until morning, and that our feline friends had their own light sources within their eyes. It can be a little unsettling, until you realise it’s just the neighbour’s cat watching you from the bushes. If you’ve ever been out in the dark, you might have noticed a pair of eyes lit up in the shadows, staring at you intently. What is the science behind cats’ eyes lighting up?
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