Are cats color blind (how many colors can cats distinguish)

Feb 10,2024
5Min

I don’t know if you have heard the rumor that cats are color blind. In fact, this is basically true. The world in the eyes of cats is different from the world in the eyes of humans. Cats cannot distinguish colorful colors like us. So even if you stand in front of it all dressed up, it doesn't feel different from those glamorous bitches, just different degrees of black, white and gray.

For a while, people thought that cats were color blind and could only see black, gray and white. Different colors were different shades of black, white and gray in the eyes of cats. However, current scientific research proves that this view cannot be established. Because experiments have proven that cats can distinguish colors after being trained to distinguish colors. Many scientists believe that cats don't care about colors, and although they can see colors, they don't assign any meaning to them. Binocular vision is very important for hunting animals like cats.

Because it must be able to accurately judge mileage in order to calculate the distance to the hunting target. When the fields of view of an animal's two eyes overlap, a stereoscopic visual effect can be produced. The larger the overlapping range, the stronger and more accurate the stereoscopic effect will be. Cats' ability to judge distance is not entirely as accurate as humans, but it is better than dogs. The overlapping range of the human eye's field of view is larger than that of a cat's eye, while that of a dog's eye is smaller than that of a cat's eye.

Cats don’t recognize many colors

Cats’ color vision is often ignored by people, thinking that they live in a black and white world. It is true that cats cannot distinguish rich colors like humans - human retinas have three kinds of cone cells: red, green, and blue. It is these basic "three primary color visual cells" that give animals the ability to perceive the color world. However, cats' vision There are only two types of cones, green and blue. In this way, cats can only distinguish limited colors, such as gray and green, blue, and yellow. You know, most mammals only have two types of cone cells, and the world is basically black and white in their eyes.

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Powerful night vision

The cat sacrifices its sense of color in exchange for its super powerful night vision ability. In the dark, the cone cells begin to work. At this time, the rod cells in the retina come into play. These cells cannot perceive color, so in the dark, everything we see is black and white. The ratio of rods:cones in cats is 25:1, while humans are only 4:1. Therefore, when it is dark, the cat becomes more sensitive than humans, and its pupils can expand to the surface of the eyeball in the dark. 90% of them, the weak light is enough for them to find prey. Come and go freely in dark environments.

Although a cat’s ability to distinguish colors is poor, this does not affect its hunting and life. Their vision in dim light conditions is much more sensitive than humans. Cats only need one-sixth of the light that human eyes receive toCapturing movement and appearance details with human-like precision, it can be well adapted to night hunting life.

Cats rarely need to use their ability to distinguish colors, so there is no need to worry about cats’ color blindness. This does not prevent them from living a enjoyable life; their world is not monotonous, because you are still with them. oh.

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