do animals see in black&wite? how do they see in the dark?????

Question

do snakes see colors or do they sense only the heat and detect living things ?and how do we kno that wat we see is for real the same color?as we also belong to the animal kingdom we too might have varied vision...??wat we see as green might look like something else to another animal.......

Answer 1

Eye composition is different from species to species

Some animals do not have cones in their eyes, which allow other animals to see in varying degrees of color. Humans have three cone types: red, blue, and green. However, other cone types have been found in various animals. Some aquatic species have been examined to have many more, some as many as 16 different types.

Eye shape is another factor. Birds have eyes that can focus more sharply on a point than other animals. The back of their eye is flatter and larger, allowing for a bigger picture to be taken in through the lens and pupil.

Some animals barely have a developed eye due to their natural habitat, such as cave dwellers and some burrowers. Instead, other senses make up for the loss of sight.

There are even cases where eyesight is only for observation of movement in the area. In other words, stand still and you will not get picked up. Rhinoceros eyes are like that.

The Pupil, which is where light comes into the eye, gets larger in darker environments to let animals get around in low-light surroundings. The muscles which control the pupil size (dilator and sphincter pairs) are stronger or larger in certain animals, giving them the ability to open the pupil to the point where the Iris is barely visible around it. Cats are a good example.

Some animals can even see in the infrared and ultraviolet, but this again goes tothe types of rods and cones present in the composition of the animal eye.

Answer 2

I'll tackle the black & white and night vision questions. Cats see in black and white but see extremely well in the dark. They are nocturnal and therefore have little use for color vision. Instead, their eyes are adapted to see in very low-light conditions. They have more rods than cones because rods are more sensitive to light (cones are the retina cells that detect specific colors of light, rods are not color-specific and they are much more sensitive). They also have a tissue behind the retina called the tapetum lucidum. This tissue reflects light back over the retina which gives the retina cells a second chance to detect it. This is why the eyes of cats, dogs, and other animals shine in the dark. This effect greatly increases an animal's night vision. On the other hand, it blurs their vision. So in the dark, a cat can see well when all we see is black but in the light their vision is much poorer than ours.

Answer 3

Whoa, slow down! : ) I'll take a stab at your first question...

In dealing with this question, I am going to focus simply on vetebrates.

Colour blindness is a term that descibes an animal which does not have the range of colour vision that one would expect. An animal can be colour blind and still see colour. Black and white vision involves only seeing things only in shades of gray.

Animals have cones to detect colour. In mammals there are cones to detect reds, blues and greens; however humans and a few other primates are totally exceptional in possesing all three types of cones. Most mammals appear to be able to distinguish blues and either red or green (but not both). Humans which are colour blind usually have lost some of their ability to detect both reds and greens. However, they still have the ability to see blues and yellows without any difficulty.

Even those animals that can only see one colour do not see in black and white. For these animals, it is like looking at an old computer monitor which has bright yellow/green writing on a green background. There is only one colour present, but it is still a colour monitor! Unfortunately, many written resources refer to monochromatic vision as "black and white" which has created a huge misconception for many students.....

Answer 4

alot of animals can see colors. Infact some animals can even see the infrared and ultravoilet which we humans cannot see.
It is possible what we see as green may appear to other animals as somthing else. It just depends on how much light their eyes can detect. Some animals have very sensitive eyes and they can see in conditions which to us humans appear pitch dark. That is is the same as what a night vision does it enhances the light and uses infra red light.

Answer 5

I've always heard that cats see in black and white, that's why they're more attracted to moving things as opposed to still. I've also heard that dogs see in a bluish color, but as far as other animals, they all see different. Scientifically, all of our eyes are made differently, different shapes and structure, so it stands to reason they would work differently as well. Seeing in the dark? Well, nocturnal animals have eyes that allow more light in than daytime animals, so they see better as long as there is some light to be seen. In pitch dark, nothing can "see" except for heat-seeking animals.

Answer 6

GRR, reading some of these got a little frustrating. Being colour blind does not mean not being able to see colour, it means seeing and processing colours differntly then the average person. Neither cats or dogs see in just black and white. Snakes can see, otherwise they wouldn't have eyes! They just don't use their eyes for hunting. Thats where their toungue comes in, to sense out the pray. Also, its not that we can't see in the dark, we can, just not very well. Cats can see 20 times better then us in the dark, and dogs, though not as much, are also able to see better. Lets not forget, animals are much more instinctive then us, and have a variety of ways to guide themselves.

Answer 7

dogs cannot see colors, so they cannot see in the dark because black is the lack of light. no light, no see. as for snake, they detect the body heat of other animals such as a rat. they do not need light to see since their eyes do not detect light but heat. and you are probably right about how we might see a color, yet it might be a different color to another animal.

Answer 8

yes there is a problem called being color blind! From what i understand as long as there is light in the room maybe they can see around them...but like anyone else when it is dark i see more gray and black and white than i do colors. so if it was dark and they couldn't see a thing i would imagine that it is like when you turn off all the lights and cover the blinds a tnight....can yousee anything? don't know about animals...her that dogs sede only balck and white though.

Answer 9

wether an animal sees in color or not really depends on what type of animal they are and their adaptatoins. youve probably heard of cells in your eyes called cones and rods, rods let you see in black and white, cones let you see in color. the way you see things depends on how many of each you have, humans have 125 million rod cells and 7 million cone cells in each eye, another animal could have less or more of either. some animals could probably see in black and white, others can see in some color, or not see at all. nocturnal animals can see beter in the dark because of thier rod cells, rods work in little light and see things in black, white, or shades of gray. animals like bats use sound to see, they send out high-pithced screeches then listen for them to bounce back in an echo, if it does come back, the sound creates a mental picture inside their head of what is in front of them. Snakes can see in normal vision and sense heat with organs on the side of their head called heat pits. how good their vision is depends on the snake. animals that see colors see them in the same way that we do because color is caused by the same electromagnetic radiation. this is difficult to explain without goin into a science lesson now, but in short most animals that see color can only see certain colors like yellow or green. but all the colors that we see are caused by radiation. the colors that animals see are caused by the same radiation. if we see something as green, so does another animal.

Answer 10

animals have no, i think rods, correct me if i'm wrong, so they cannot see in color. that makes their cones much stronger and cones help see images sharper especially in dark. humans can see colors though, so their cones are weaker making them take longer to only see just a little bit in dark after a few hours of darkness. i remember once when my dog locked himself in the bathroom and found the toilet paper in total darkness :P. there always is a little light, that's what night vision goggles do. they magnify the small amount of light there actually is.