Can a cat see clearly at night without turning on the light?

Cats catch mice at night, so we think cats have the best eyesight at night. In fact, this is a beautiful misunderstanding. If a cat is placed in a completely dark environment, it will be completely blind like us, but the cat’s eyes can gather the weak light in the environment.

There is a mirror-like structure in front of the cat’s retina called the bright blanket. After the weak light enters the retina and hits the bright blanket, it will be reflected to the retina, causing the light-receiving cells (rods and cone cells) to receive light stimulation again, improving the effect of light, thereby increasing night vision.
A cat’s pupils will dilate in the dark, which helps to collect more light, so the amount of light a cat receives only needs 1/6 of that of a human to see clearly!

The cat’s eyes glow golden and a little green at night because of the reflection of the bright blanket. However, humans do not have a bright blanket, so their eyes do not emit light at night.

Can cats really see in the dark?

For cats, the price of having night vision is that they have to cope with relatively poor daytime vision.
In the dark, cats can see “six to eight times better” than humans.
According to Plummer, cats rely on other senses as well.
Given their ability to avoid collisions during these nighttime exercises, you might assume that cats have natural night vision. But can they see at night? That’s not the right question, according to Caryn Plummer, a clinical veterinary ophthalmologist at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.
“It’s not a matter of seeing in the dark or not seeing in the dark,” she told Live Science in an email. “The perception of vision – you could say quality – is more like a range than a yes or no.” Plummer explains that the amount of ambient light present affects what an individual, whether a human or a cat, can see. However, cats are much better at discerning objects in situations with very little available light than humans, largely due to the way their eyes evolved.
“Cats can see in the dark because the structure of their eyes, specifically the retina, allows them to see better than humans in low light,” Plummer said. “Compared to humans, cats have a higher percentage and concentration of rod cells, which means they are more sensitive to light and can see more than we can at low light levels,” .
According to charity Cats Protection, so many canes mean cats can see “six to eight times better” in the dark than humans.

Why did cats evolve such excellent night vision?

“Adaptations to vision are a direct result of species’ need to interact with their environment,” Plummer said. “Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they must eat meat to stay healthy. They are unable to produce certain essential proteins and must obtain them from external sources. Many of their potential prey are active at night or in low light conditions ”
However, while feline eyes are designed for nocturnal escapades, cats’ ability to successfully navigate their environment during periods of near-darkness depends on more than just the composition of their eyes. According to Plummer, cats rely on other senses as well.
“Cats have very acute hearing and olfaction [senses of smell], which contribute to their ability to navigate,” Plummer said. “Interaction with the environment requires the collaboration of all senses.” So cats are better than humans at wandering around at night, but they certainly don’t beat humans during the day in terms of the quality of their vision.
“In the course of evolution, every advantage usually comes at a cost,” Ron Ofri, professor of veterinary ophthalmology at the Koret School of Veterinary Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, told Live Science in an email.
For cats, the price of having night vision is that they have to cope with relatively poor daytime vision.
“Due to adaptations that allow for such sensitive night vision, their daytime vision is only 1/7 of ours,” Ofori said. “This comes as a shock to people who think cats always have great eyesight: they do, but only at night; they have terrible daytime vision.”