The Amazing Cat's Eyes and Their Function

Aren't God's creatures amazing? For instance, let's take a look at a very mysterious creature, the cat. A cat can creep up quietly and pounce on its prey without the prey even knowing what hit it. The reason for this is the amazing cat's eyes and their function. Cat's eyes seem to work well in the daylight and even better at night, although cat's cannot see in complete darkness. A cat only needs one-sixth of the illumination that a human needs to see clearly.

First of all cat's have three eyelids, wow! The third inner eyelid is called a nictating membrane. It only covers part of the eye and comes from the inner corner of the cats eye. The nictating membrane acts as a form of protection for the cat's eyes. It protects their eyes from damage and rids it of any dirt and other yucky stuff. The cat also uses the membrane to help control bright light that tends to hurt their eyes.

Cat's eyes and pupils are larger than human's eyes. There are two ciliary muscles that control the cat's pupils. Their pupil's contract to a very large size in dim light and close to a vertical small, up-and-down slit in bright light to control the amount of light received. The lenses in cat's eyes are more curved which enables them to focus well and have sharper vision. And contrary to popular belief cat's can see some color.

Cats have an extra layer of tissue positioned at the back of the eye behind the retina called the tapetum lucidum which acts like a mirror and reflects the light back to the light sensor cells in the retina. This increases the amount of light a cat has to see with. This is also what creates the reflection, the demonic-looking glow that you see in the cat's eyes, when the light catches their eyes just right in the darkness. Cones and Rods are two light receptor cells on the cat's retina. Cones are sensitive to bright lights and rods are sensitive to dim lights. Since cats seem to have better vision at night, it is safe to say they have more Rods. These receptor cells are on a broad horizontal band which helps cats spot their prey quickly at short and great distances and makes them a great night time hunter.

One evening in my backyard, I watched my neighbor's cat sizing up a very large dragonfly that was zooming high overhead. I thought that this cat would never be able to reach this cute dragonfly flying safely overhead. At that exact moment, the cat propels high into the air and smack, catches the dragonfly right between his paws. The poor dragonfly never knew what hit him and Patches enjoyed a very tasty treat! And it's all because of their amazing cat's eyes!