Animals with Incredible Night Vision

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Whether hunting under the cover of darkness, living in dimly lit environments, or trying to get away from predators during the night, having good eyesight is a must. Nocturnal animals and those that live in low light conditions are equipped with amazing night vision that helps them to see the world in the absence of sunlight.

Why do Some Animals Have Better Night Vision than Others?

Being able to see the world clearly at night is simply something that human eyes are not capable of. However, many night animals have specially adapted eyes that can be much larger, letting more light in. Some have the ability to process photons at a different rate, while others sacrifice details in favor of light.

Pupil Size & Shape

Some animals, such as the tarsier, have vastly larger eyes than many daytime animals. These mammals have the largest eyes in proportion to their body size and each one is the same size as the tarsier’s brain. The benefit of this is that more light, in the form of photons, can enter their large pupils and hit the photoreceptors in the eye at any one time. This means that they’re able to get a clear image even when hunting on a moonless night.

You may notice that some nocturnal animals, such as cats, have differently shaped pupils that are more of a slit as opposed to being circular. The reason for this is the muscles around the pupil that contract and relax to let in more or less light. In humans, this causes the pupil to dilate into a smaller circle when there is more light. However, these animals’ muscles can also contract the pupil into a slit during the day, which prevents their eyes from being overwhelmed by the light. But when darkness falls, the pupil will loosen up, become larger, and let in more light.

Some animals, like the cuttlefish, have a W-shaped pupil. This is so that the eye can balance between the darkness coming from below and the bright sunlight entering the water from above.

Tapetum Lucidum

Have you ever noticed how some night animals’ eyes have an eerie glow in the dark? That’s less to do with looking threatening and more to do with being able to see better in low light.

It’s all thanks to a reflective layer at the back of the eye called the tapetum lucidum. When light enters the eye, it usually hits the photoreceptors and images are sent to the brain. But the tapetum lucidum reflects it back to the front of the eye, improving their ability to see in the dark.

This is such an effective adaptation that it inspired humans to create the cat’s eyes we have on our roads.

Rods & Cones

In the eye, there are rods and cones. Cones are responsible for detecting color, but rods enable an animal to take in more light. These photoreceptor cells are incredibly sensitive to light, and in nocturnal animals, more rods are present in the eye.

While they don’t produce any color images, rods can pick up on scattered or low light which improves the animal’s ability to see in the dark. Since rods are also grouped together and send pooled information to the brain, they send a much stronger signal but this is at the sacrifice of clarity.

Tetrachromacy

Humans are trichromats which means we can see in three color wavelengths. However, some nighttime animals have tetrachromatic vision which means they have not three, but four color receptors in their eyes. The benefit of this is that they are more easily able to distinguish colors, even in low light. In fact, tetrachromats are able to see up to 100 million colors.

Even more amazing is that there are some nocturnal animals that are blessed with the ability to see UV light. This is thanks to tetrachromacy which allows them not only to see all the colors humans can see but also a fourth one; ultraviolet. It’s now even been discovered that our beloved cats and dogs may also have this ability.

Animals with the Best Night Vision

There are thousands of nighttime animals that have amazing visual adaptations, allowing them to see in low-light conditions. Let’s meet some of them!

1. Tarsiers (Tarsiidae)

Tarsiers have such large eyes that each one is the same size as its brain. So big are they that the tarsier cannot rotate them but fortunately, they are able to turn their heads 180 degrees to get a better view of the world around them.

While a lot of night animals have a reflective layer that helps them to see in the dark, tarsiers lack this. Their ability to see in low light comes primarily from the massive size of their peepers, which let in tons of light. They’ll sit and wait for prey to approach and use their head-turning abilities to look for an incoming meal. But while their eyes are adapted to let in more light, they’re still able to see in trichromatic color.

The eyesight of the tarsier is so amazing that developers have now come up with tarsier goggles that give us a glimpse into how they see.

2. Owls (Strigiformes)

Owls are one of the most iconic night animals and they’re adapted to life in the dark in many ways; one of these is their excellent night vision. But amazingly, these birds don’t actually have eyeballs, at least, not in the way that we understand it.

Instead of ball-shaped eyes, they have rods that sit static in the head (that’s why they’re able to rotate their heads so well, so they have a good view around them.) It’s thought that, through evolution, rather than the eyes expanding outwards to get bigger, they developed into long tubes. But it’s perfectly effective since owls have the best night vision of any animal.

Not only do their elongated eyes offer brilliant depth perception and binocular vision, but they are also incredibly sharp. For example, northern hawk owls can spot prey from up to half a mile away. Moreover, scientists now believe that the way the DNA molecules in owls’ eyes are packaged, this acts as a vision enhancer, boosting their ability to see in low light.

3. Nightjars (Caprimulgidae)

Nightjars are birds that are both nocturnal and crepuscular (they are active at dusk and dawn), and in order to view the world clearly in low light, they have some interesting adaptations. One of the main adaptations is their large eyes which allow more light in. However, there are some species of nightjar that scientists have discovered have little oil droplets in their eyes that’s believed to further enhance their night vision.

While the retinas of the nightjar do not have cone cells, owing to no need to see in color, they are packed with additional rods that allow them to sense motion. The eyes are also equipped with a tapetum which reflects light back, giving the animal a ‘second chance’ to see the image.

4. Cats (Felis catus)

If you’ve got a pet cat, you’ll notice that your moggy sleeps for most of the day and that’s because these domestic animals are actually crepuscular. In the wild, they would hunt at dawn and dusk meaning they need improved vision.

Cats have vertical pupils, but they’re able to fully dilate just like our own eyes. This is to do with the muscles around the pupils that in cats are much more effective. Where human pupils only increase by around 15 fold when fully dilated, cats can dilate up to 300 fold!

This allows a lot more light to enter their sensitive eyes, giving them a clear view of the world around them. However, during the day, having such open pupils wouldn’t be comfortable with all that light flooding in. That’s why, in the light, cats’ pupils narrow to nothing more than a slit.

Much more than this, cats have a tapetum which reflects light back and their eyes have far many more rods than cones, which absorb light. However, their color vision isn’t as good, and they are more easily able to see violets and blue than they are red wave light.

5. Bats (Chiroptera)

You’ve probably heard the saying as blind as a bat, but this isn’t exactly accurate. In fact, bats have pretty good daytime vision and at night, they’re almost certainly more adept at seeing than we are. However, the color vision of some bat species is not so spot on after evolution caused them to lose a protein called opsin from the back of the eyes. 

Bats’ eyes are actually very well adapted to seeing in low light with extra rods to pick up on light, and because they hunt at night, this comes in very handy. However, their ability to find prey in the dark comes more down to their echolocation than it does their eyes.

There are more than 1400 species of bats in the world, and around 70% of these use echolocation. They emit a series of high-frequency sounds which bounce off items in the environment and back to the bat. This allows them to accurately hone in on their prey.

6. Ocelots (Leopardus pardalis)

The ocelot is a species of wild cat found in North, Central, and South America. Just like their domestic relatives, they tend to hunt under the cover of darkness, although they’re mostly nocturnal as opposed to crepuscular.

Ocelots have amazing hearing and are able to pick up on scent trails when hunting, but they also rely on their impeccable eyesight. They have a tapetum at the back of their eyes which allows in extra light, making it much easier to see in the dark. If you were to look at one at night, you’d notice how the eyes shine in a golden glow.

What’s more, ocelots have a ring of white fur around the outside of the eye, which is believed to further reflect light.

7. Snakes (Serpentes)

Not all snakes are nocturnal, but many are, and they’ve all got fantastic night vision to aid their hunting efforts.

What’s truly amazing is that snakes such as vipers, pythons, and boa constrictors have an ability to convert the heat emitted from their prey and turn it into an image, essentially allowing them to ‘see’ in the dark.

Behind the eyes are pits and these pits contain cells that act as something of an antenna, picking up on infrared radiation, which the snake then converts into an image. This was long unknown by scientists but discovering this has explained why some snakes hunt so accurately in complete darkness.

8. Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) & Crocodiles (Crocodylidae)

Alligators and crocodiles are incredibly effective and feared hunters of the animal kingdom. When they hunt for prey, they don’t actively seek it out. Instead, they’ll sit just under the surface of the water with just their snouts and eyes poking out.

In many animals, the rods in the back of the retina are laid out in a circular pattern. However, this arrangement is different in alligators and crocs, whose rods are laid out horizontally. Not to mention that there is an extremely high concentration of rods compared to humans.

With this arrangement, these ancient reptiles have a much wider field of vision. So, when they’re sitting in the water, they can see prey approaching from various angles, whereas we would have a more pinpointed view.

9. Sharks (Selachimorpha)

Another of the world’s most formidable hunters is the shark. These large marine fish have to hunt in sometimes very dark waters, so having a tapetum in their eyes means that light reflects back, giving them a much clearer picture.

The night vision adaptations of sharks vary depending on the species. For example, some sharks are known to have no cone cells meaning they have no color vision. Even sharks that do have cones are thought to only have one, effectively making them color blind. However, they have lots of rods for detecting light, making them efficient night hunters. The effectiveness of the tapetum also varies between species according to their preferred hunting times. 

Another thing that differs between shark species is their field of vision. Some have stereoscopic vision, while others have monocular vision.

10. Cows (Bovidae)

Cows are diurnal animals so that may leave you wondering why they’d need good night vision. But it isn’t just hunters that need good eyesight, prey need to be able to see to escape, and that’s exactly why cows have much better night vision than humans.

Shine a light on a cow and you’ll see that its eyes glow, and that’s because they have a tapetum; that reflective layer at the back of the eye. Despite this, cows will avoid low light and will move into light where possible. This is coupled with eyes that are located on the sides of their head, giving them a much wider field of vision.

Cows don’t have fantastic depth perception, and owing to their slit-shaped pupils and weak muscles, they’re not able to focus as quickly as we do.

11. Moths (Lepidoptera)

If you go out at night, you’re sure to see moths hovering around porch lights, street lights, and any other source of light. These creatures are renowned for being attracted to light, but that’s nothing to do with their vision and more to do with the fact that lights confuse their ability to navigate.

But that doesn’t mean that moths aren’t able to see in the dark. In fact, they’re much more effective hunters when there isn’t any light. That’s largely because they have compound eyes specially designed to help them see in low light.

The compound eyes are made up of lots of little facets known as ommatidia which bend light so it hits certain nerve cells before sending signals to the brain. This is even more effective in the dark as the ommatidia are covered by a sheath that lifts when it’s dark, allowing more light to enter the eye.

The small fragments of light that enter the eye are constructed by the brain to make a mosaic image. This is such an effective process that eradicates non-essential details and brightens color to make moth vision one of the best in the insect kingdom.

12. Foxes (Vulpes vulpe)

Foxes have very similar visual abilities to cats and have many more rod cells in their eyes than cones. This means that their eyes are able to pick up on light even when the conditions are pretty dim. However, this does mean that their color perception is not as great, but that’s not an issue when hunting under the cover of darkness.

They also have those same vertical slit pupils which are able to dilate and let in lots of light. They’ll contract again during the day to prevent too much light from getting in and hurting the fox’s eyes. Moreover, it’s thought that having pupils in this shape allows the fox to better detect horizontal movement. It’s thought that foxes are better at catching moving prey.

Finally, foxes, like many other night animals, have a tapetum lucidum which reflects light entering the eye back, allowing for a much clearer view. That’s also what gives them that eerie glow when you spot one in your car’s headlights.

13. Deer (Cervidae)

Deer are mainly crepuscular or nocturnal so while you may spot them during the day, it’s less common. These elegant mammals have, like a lot of other night animals, way more rods than they do cones. This means that, while they aren’t great at seeing color, they’re able to see in the dark much more easily than humans.

On top of this, deer also have a tapetum, so as with a lot of other animals on this list, you’ll see their eyes glowing, even in the moonlight.

While deer vision isn’t exactly crystal clear, they are known to be able to detect movement very easily, which is essential since they’re prey animals. Moreover, they have a very wide field of vision, and some hunters claim that they’re able to see up to 656 feet (200 meters) on a moonlit night.

14. Cuttlefish (Sepiida)

Cuttlefish have always astounded me. They’re incredibly strange creatures but seriously fascinating, and their eyesight is no exception.

You may remember earlier in this post I mentioned that cuttlefish have W-shaped pupils. This is so that they can distinguish color wavelengths differently from other animals and essentially means they can see polarized light, adding another dimension to their vision and allowing them to see the angle at which light hits a surface. 

Not only this, but studies have shown that cuttlefish are able to change their camouflage at night simply by using their vision. This gives them even more of an upper hand when it comes to nighttime hunting!

15. Geckos (Gekkota)

Most animals with good night vision have more rods than cones to let in light. But where geckos are different is that they have way more cones giving them low-light color vision that’s around 350 times better than that of a human!

Even more interesting is that geckos, along with most other species of lizards, do not have rod cells. They’re mainly diurnal animals so there’s really no need. But put them in low light and they can even pick out a tasty snack according to what color it’s labeled with, as you can see from this recent study.

What’s more, in the species of nocturnal geckos, the pupil stays a mere slit during the day but opens fully at night to let in more light. During the day, when the pupil is constricted, two sets of pinholes are formed along the slit, which aid the animal in focus so its vision is just as good in high light as it is in low.

16. Raccoons (Procyonidae)

Raccoons might be seen as night time pests, but there’s no denying that they’re pretty special in terms of their visual abilities. For starters, these mammals have a tapetum lucidum which reflects light back once it hits the eyes. But when you shine a light on them, their eyes glow red! On top of this, it’s believed that the dark fur around the eyes is there to absorb excess light as well as reducing glare.

Not only do they have great night vision and excellent depth perception owing to their forward-facing eyes, but raccoons also have impeccable hearing, which makes them exceptional night time hunters.