Issue 34: October 10
Dear Fancy,

Can Cats See in the Dark?


–Francis

Dear Francis,

Cats see very well in the dark thanks to special structures in their eyes. A cat’s eyes are designed to capture as much light as possible and reflect it within the eye itself to see images—even in very low light. The tapetum is a highly reflective membrane at the back of a cat’s eye that helps this process and is also responsible for the flash of yellow (or red in Siamese cats) we see in a cat’s eyes in the dark. Even cats cannot see in pitch black, such as a dark cave but they can see much better detail in low light than we can.

Read more about the anatomy of a cat’s eyes here.



FancyLeft

Fancy

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