Scientists Edge Us Closer to Seeing What Other Animals See

Ever wonder how other animals literally see the world? Well, a new study brings us one step closer and shows remarkable differences in perception.

Photo by Sappho Bakker on Unsplash

I’d always heard people talk about how cool cat eyes are. I figured it was because of their pupil shape and because cats can see well in the dark. Then, I became a proud cat mom for the first time and noticed another fascinating aspect of cat eyes. Our human pupils and irises are at the front of our eyeballs, but a cat’s is set back behind a thick transparent layer. So, being me, I became curious about how the anatomy of their eye affects their vision.

I learned a lot and found this visual helpful, but what about other animals? How do insects, squirrels, or zebras see the world? It turns out that science just took a big step forward in finding out. For the first time, biologists developed a way to create videos depicting how other animals see the world visually. I’m obviously excited about this breakthrough because it helps me satisfy personal curiosities, but it’s also exciting for other reasons.

Human Perspective

Humans, like all other primates, are highly visual creatures. We rely heavily on visual cues to survive and have evolved eyes designed to detect a specific range of electromagnetic radiation wavelengths between 380 and 700 nanometers, which we call the visible light spectrum.

With the help of our tears, this light passes through a transparent, domed-shaped layer called the cornea, which bends light to help the eye focus. Some of this bent light enters the eye through the pupils, while the iris, the colored part of the eye, controls the amount of light entering the pupil by contracting and dilating it.

Once light enters the pupil, it passes through a clear lens, which works together with the cornea to focus it correctly on a light-sensitive layer of tissue called our retina. You can think of the pupils, iris, lens, and cornea as parts of a camera, while the retina would be the film.

The retina contains special cells called photoreceptors, which turn light into electrical signals that travel through the optic…