Animal Vision

Animal Vision Introduction In the animal world, vision is not crucial compared to the human world. Human beings not only observe objects but they have an ability to observe them with colour. All animal are not so lucky to posses all the colour that we have. For example, the dog sees all objects in greyness, but for pet monkey they are lucky because they possess full colour vision as we do. Most animal, have their own way to see their food and it is not only by eyes. As for dogs, they have remarkable sense of smell and this appears to be as valuable as vision and in some cases even more. This is why so many old dogs are kept as pensioners even after their sight has disappeared, since they still can continue to hunt in the fields nearly as successful as in the days when they could see. The human eye, then, is magnificent compromise in being almost as good as the eagles by day, and almost as good as the cat by night. As usual the complacency produced by this knowledge is pricked by the insects for they can see things that we can never see. Insects Vision For the eyes of the insect, it is considerably different compared to human eyes. Their structure of the eye made of two types; simple and complex. Simple eyes are small and round and only capable of separating light and dark. These eyes are called ocelli. The larger and more complex eye is the compound eyes.(1) It made up of hundreds of small eyes that contain light sensitive cells, lens, and connection to the brain.

(1) Figure 1: Head of caterpillar.

By: Farrah Zainol

Animal Vision

(1) Figure 2: Head of butterfly showing compound eyes. Compared to human lens that can change the shape to focus on the object, the lens in the insects eyes cannot change their shape so they cannot focus. The compound eyes works by each of the eyes six sided component detecting a tiny portion of visual. Each component in a compound eye is known as an ommatidium.(2) In general, compound eyes develop embryonically. When fully developed, the compound cells of the eyes are not merely light sensitive but can determine form and space. The single image is formed by combining each ommatidium together like a mosaic. They receive that total visual image through a compound eye and it is composed of spots of light and darkness. The acuity of the visual is dependent on the number of ommatidium. When the number of ommatidia gets higher, the visual is keener. The estimated number of ommatidia in various compound eyes as follows: Some beetles,25 000 facets; dragon fly,17355; housefly, 4000; ants,100-1000, varying with variety and sex.(3) Housefly has 4000 ommatidia. Since these ommatidia faces different direction, the fly is able to see in all direction and gives 360 degree visual range. Each ommatidium is sensitive to light that shines on them. House flies have combined of 48000 light sensitive cells and this allows them to see 100 images per second.(3) The human eye is ten times slower than their eyes. If a house flies see a film, it will not see continues image but have to wait frame by frame because their eyes works faster than ours. Ultraviolet vision is the most interesting possession that insect has. Even though their acuity is low; about one-hundredth of ours for the bee and their sensitivity is worse; about one- thousandth of ours they can detect ultraviolet light and can discriminate it from the light of longer wavelength which is visible to us. This is because light travels in the very short distance inside their compound eyes. Thus they perceive a colour which human beings are blind to. By: Farrah Zainol 2

Animal Vision Apart from possessing ultraviolet vision, bees also have the ability to detect the plane of polarisation of light and the extent to which it is polarised. Light from the sky is partly polarised and the plane of polarisation is pointing at the sun. The fraction that is polarised depends on the angle between the sun and the part of the sky from which light comes.(4) This means the position of the sun can be deduced from observation of single patch of the sky even when the sky is obscured by clouds. So a bee can get a compass bearing from one small patch of sky during the day and use the bearing to the sources of honey. Fishes Vision Under the sea surface, the vision of the creature living in there is different from the one that are living in the land. But they still need to feed, breathe and avoid being hunt as the animal in the land do. Fish see their world through transparent layer that cover their eyes. As they go farther and farther to the seabed, the light becomes more dim and at the deepest ocean, it is a complete darkness because all available light has been absorbed by the surface layer. So only the fish that lives in the shallow water possesses colour sense and most of them only possess shades of green and blue.(4) At this great depth, fish carry their own lamps. Such areas of illumination are built into the bodies of the fishes. Fish, most of the time only need to see the object that exactly in front of them and their eyes meet this criteria. But if the fish need to see object that at a distance away, some of their muscle can pull the lens back to the retina to give better vision. Fishes are frequently provided in front of their eyes with steering sight in the form of lines or ridges which enable them to take the aim. In the deep water, the pressure becomes bigger upon an unguarded cornea might be excessive. To overcome this, many fish wear solid spectacles and the space between the spectacles and the cornea is to allow eye movement.

(5) Figure 3: The spectacle of a fish shown in section.

By: Farrah Zainol

Animal Vision Fish have a spherical lens and it works remarkably well underwater because the refraction index is higher in the water compared in the air. Fish lens have to be a lot more curved so that the lens bends the light more compared to the flatter lens that in the land animal or mammal. Most of the fish, their eyes are located at each side of their head. Hence, they are possesses monocular and binocular vision.(5) They can see object instantly with their monocular vision but they cannot predict the distance of the object. So they can only see the object with 2D vision. When a fish sense a threat, it will bring the eyes straight ahead and get a binocular vision. Hence they get a 3D vision and can predict the distance of that danger to ran off. Birds Vision Unlike human, birds can move their head and neck very quickly to see in various positions. This is because their eyes cannot move in the socket as we do. Just like fish, they have monocular vision and binocular vision. So they can see any movement at a glance. Birds has transparent eyelid that enable them to keep the eye moist and in the same time be able to see their prey. The eyelid act as a goggle for diving birds as they dive into the water to hunt. For birds that hunt during the night, such as owl, they have more rod cells than cone cells. Rod cells are the eye receptors that enable the eye for night time viewing and sudden movement. In the other hand, cone cells are used during the day time and can perceive colour information.(6) So, owl has more powerful night vision and it is ten times more powerful than human beings. Even though owl has the ability to see the infrared vision, they still hunt their food at night by ear and not by sight. This is because they possess low infrared vision as we do and has remarkably sense of hearing. Seabirds have a difficulty when they want to hunt their food which is located beneath the water surface. The reflective light from the sea make the eyes unable to focus and predict the distance of the food. To overcome this difficulty, they will spread their wings and create a shadow area so that they can focus.(6) Eagles, as a day hunter has a remarkable sharp vision. They are gifted for an extra fovea. Fovea is a place where the cone cells are located. For human, we only have one fovea for binocular vision but for eagles, they have two foveae which are for binocular and monocular vision.(7) With that, they can sharply see separate image in front and side at the same time. To increase the contrast of the image so that they can distinguish between their prey and the colour of blue sky or green woods, their retinal cell are tinted with the special coloured oil droplets. Moreover, to attain a super-sharp vision, they can change the shape of both of their lens and cornea to get extra focusing power. Reptiles Vision Reptiles are predator who enjoying a long distance vision. In order to hunt for food, reptiles such as snake require the prey to make some movement. Snakes rule by the monocular vision. They are very quick strikers but because of the monocular vision, they cannot estimate the proper timing for an attack. They might aim for the neck of a goat that rushing repeatedly past them but they will end up their fangs behind the body.

By: Farrah Zainol

Animal Vision Snakes focus their eyes by bringing the iris backward towards their long body and push the lens forward to view object which is near them.(8) Most snakes have flattened lenses and not spherical one. The eyes of the snakes are placed on either side of their head. So they can produce two different images inside their brain and hence posses double vision. Along their body, snakes have detectors which can sense infrared. These detectors are hundred thousand times more sensitive to infrared compared to human skin. So they can feel a slight temperature difference in a warmer body. With this ability, they can hunt during the night even they do not posses as much colours as we do. Cats Vision Cats have an interesting vision compared to the other mammal animals because they possess infrared vision. They can see in the dark because their absolute threshold intensity of light is about one-fifth of ours. Cats have more rod cells than human make their vision superior compared to us at near darkness. Moreover, when dilated in the dim light, their pupil is completely circular, but when it contracted it will change to a shape of erect oval so that it can focus more. They also have mirror at the back of their retina that call Tapetum. This mirror will reflect light back through the retina, so that the light passes through the retina twice instead of once.(9) That is why sometimes when we shine light directly to them, their eyes will glow. Cats do enjoying a good vision during the day even they do not posses full colour vision as we do. They only perceive purple, blue, green and yellow. Red, orange and brown appears to fall out of cats range. So they do not see the object as vibrantly as we do.(9) Conclusion Vision in the animal kingdom depends mostly on the requirement of the animal itself and way to survive in their habitat. Some of the animal need very keen vision to feed such as eagles and while some other animal do not use their eyes at all to find food in a very low light such as deep water fishes. Certain animals who not posses full colour vision as human being, do attain other vision that we never be able to see such as infrared and ultraviolet vision. These visions are unique for the entire animal and all of them have different ways in seeing things including human. Knowing all these various type of visions, humans are able to enhance their vision by adapting this knowledge to produce good cameras and telescopes to get better images and solve the mystery of the universe.

References: By: Farrah Zainol 5

Animal Vision

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R. H. Smythe, (1975), Vision in the Animal World, London and Basingstoke : The Macmillan Press LTD, pp 120-1 R. H. Smythe, (1975), Vision in the Animal World, London and Basingstoke : The Macmillan Press LTD, pp 121-5 R. H. Smythe, (1975), Vision in the Animal World, London and Basingstoke : The Macmillan Press LTD, pp 123 G. Horvath, D. Varju,(2004), Polarized Light in Animal Vision : Polarization patterns in nature, Berlin, Springer pp 34-40 R. H. Smythe, (1975), Vision in the Animal World, London and Basingstoke : The Macmillan Press LTD, pp 108 F. Harvey Pough, M. Janis Christine, B. Heiser John, (1998), Vertebrate Life, 5th Edition, New Jersey : Prentice Hall, pp 510-2 The Bald Eagle-A Study Unit: Biology of the eagle < http://www.eagles.org/vueaglewebcs/bio_str_anat.htm >, 13 February 2008. F. Harvey Pough, M. Janis Christine, B. Heiser John, (1998), Vertebrate Life, 5th Edition, New Jersey : Prentice Hall, pp 433-9 R. H. Smythe, (1975), Vision in the Animal World, London and Basingstoke : The Macmillan Press LTD, pp 76-9

By: Farrah Zainol