Dogs and cats don’t have the same visual powers. You cannot subjectively say that one has better eyesight than the other. Research on this subject has proved that cats have better visual perception and depth than dogs.
Cats have a large number of rod cells in their eyes, allowing cats to detect light and motion in darker conditions. These features allow cats to detect prey easily at night.
Dogs are better at detecting motion in bright light due to the large number of cone cells in their eyes. The cone cells are responsible for a higher visual acuity and better color vision in bright light. Dogs’ better smelling power covers the lack of motion-detecting at night or in dark conditions.
Cats and Dogs Eyesight and Field Vision Comparison
Cats
Cats have a 200 degrees field of vision. It helps them spot the prey quickly during hunting. Cats can see at dusk and dawn; their vision is adapted to perform better in low-light conditions. Cats are better than dogs in the near-vision but not better than humans.
The corneas in cats are large and elliptical. They can gather more light than dogs. The extra rod cells in their eyes enhance night vision and enable the cats to judge any motion from prey in their peripheral vision.
You may wonder why cats’ eyes glow in the dark. The tapetum in their eyes acts like a mirror and reflects the light that passes in the eye again, enabling the eyes to pick up the light a second time.
Cats are poor than dogs in night vision. Your feline friend can see shades of green and blue but get confused with colors like pink and red. Cats and dogs depend on seeing motion rather than colors. Hence, the lack of color vision doesn’t affect them too much.
Cats are nearsighted animals and can’t see far away. They have evolved to grab their prey from short distances.
Cats have a visual insight ranging between 20/100 and 20/200. In simple words, a cat is able to see things from 20 feet compared with a human’s 100 feet distance.
Dogs
Dogs can see at 240 degrees, meaning they have a greater field of vision than cats. Unlike cats, dogs can see hand signals from a mile away but can’t focus on objects more than a foot away.
Dogs’ color vision resembles a “red-green” colorblind person. They have two types of cone cells, making color recognition and vision very limited. They rely on motion detection rather than details.
Dogs usually have a 20/75 vision range, meaning they can see objects from 20 feet, which humans see at 75 feet. They have slightly less insight vision than cats.
Night Vision in Cats and Dogs
Cats can see better in the dark than dogs. Cats can also see better at night than humans. They have a large elliptical cornea. Their cornea helps them to gather light.
Dogs’ eyes have more rods than humans, so it’s obvious they can also see better at night than humans. They also have bigger pupils so that more light can enter their eyes. Besides this, they also have a tapetum, just like cats in their eyes, which helps them absorb more light, which is why they can also see at night.
Color Recognition for Cats and Dogs
Cats have a limited color vision or color recognition than dogs. They can recognize shades of blue and green. At the same time, they fail to distinguish or recognize pink and red types shades. Instead of colors, they rely on the object’s motion. They count on their sense of smell and hearing to detect someone.
Dogs have eyesight vision like a person with red-green colorblindness. They have only two types of cones to help them in color recognition; that’s why their color recognition is limited. They also detect objects’ motion far away from them, but they find it difficult to focus on close objects. Moreover, their sense of smell is unmatchable to cats as they have a far better sense of smell even than humans.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do cats have night vision?
Yes, cats have better night vision than humans and dogs. They have a tapetum behind their retina, which helps their eyes to reflect and absorb more light than normal. So their eyes glow at night and help them see better in the dark.
Do dogs have good night vision?
Yes, dogs can see at night better than humans. They have rod-dominating retinas, which allow them to see in the dark. They cannot detect or recognize colors better, but they can see objects from their movements in the dark.
Do animals have night vision?
Many animals have night vision, due to which they hunt at night. Animals having night vision include cats, wolves, foxes, mice, bats, and owls. Moreover, animals that can see at night are called nocturnal, while who can see both night and day are known as crepuscular.
