Mary Allen
Surely you have already looked deep into the cat‘s eyes of your velvet paw. Did you notice the vertical pupils? The slotted gateways to the cat’s soul are as intriguing as they are meaningful, as you’ll read about below.
Cats hunt at dusk. In fact, they don’t do many of their jobs in broad daylight, but when it gets a little dim. Their vertical pupils, in combination with the cats’ so-called multifocal lenses, form an ideal team – they allow the velvet paws to see razor-sharp color images even in poor light.
Cat Eyes: The Benefits of Multifocal Lenses
Scientists discovered that cats have what are known as multifocal lenses. These are able to perceive colors sharply even in the twilight. The highlight of these lenses: They have different zones, each with different refractive properties. A cat’s eye lenses can focus light optimally and direct it effectively to the retina. This makes it much easier for them to see in the dark. We humans can’t keep up with our round pupils. That is why we are not nearly as good at chasing mice in the dark as our house tigers.
Vertical Pupils Make Vision Perfect
The vertical pupils are most beneficial when more light enters the cat’s eyes. That is when the iris contracts. If cats had round pupils, several zones of the multifocal lenses would be covered. The slit-shaped pupils, on the other hand, only contract at the sides, leaving a vertical cross-section of the lens-free. As a result, cats continue to have every refractive zone available – and they can see pin-sharp even in the light.
Another interesting finding of the researchers: vertical pupils with multifocal lenses are mainly found in predators that hunt their prey at night. So they are well equipped. Other animals, which are not necessarily hunters, tend to have horizontal pupils, so they develop a kind of panoramic view of their surroundings – for example, to see their attacker coming as early as possible.