Who sees best in the dark?

Owl

The most famous bird with excellent night vision is the owl. By the way, the idea that owls see poorly during the day is a myth. They see well both during the day and at night. But at night their vision becomes sharper, and they see 100 times better than a human. Even on the darkest moonless night, an owl can easily spot a mouse sneaking through the grass, a bird hiding among the leaves, or a squirrel climbing a fluffy fir tree.

Cat

According to scientists, cats cannot see in complete darkness, but in starlight and moonlight they see six times better than humans. In the dark, their pupils expand significantly, reaching a diameter of 14 mm (for comparison: in humans, the maximum pupil diameter does not exceed 8 mm). On a bright sunny day, a cat’s pupils turn into narrow slits to protect the sensitive retinal cells from excess light.

Cats also have a highly developed reflective layer in the eye, which is also found in other animals. Thanks to this layer, the eyes of animals “glow” in the reflection of headlights or flashlights. You can learn more about cat vision in our article.

Horse

It is known that a horse’s retina contains many more rods than cones — their ratio is approximately 9:1. And it is the rods that are responsible for vision in low light. Therefore, a horse can navigate well in the dark: graze, move around, avoid obstacles and holes.

Dog

According to veterinarians, dogs also have good night vision — they see four times better in the dark than humans.

Snake

At night, snakes’ eyes detect infrared signals, meaning the heat emitted by the bodies of animals. This is how a snake sees a person in the dark.

Human

Humans navigate poorly in the dark, but the world is beautiful for us nonetheless. The human eye contains 110–125 million rods responsible for black-and-white vision and 6–7 million cones, which provide color vision. Thanks to this large number of color-sensitive cells, our eyes can perceive about five million color shades — something no other animal can compare with.