How Animals See the World - Google Arts & Culture (2024)

Catching The Eye: Egernia cunninghami, Cunningham's Skink, David Paul, From the collection of:

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Dragonflies

The most efficient hunter on the planet is not the lion or shark. In fact, lions only successfully capture around 15% of animals they hunt, and sharks catch around 47%. One animal has an astounding capture success rate of 95%: the dragonfly.

Much of its success rate is attributed to its eyesight. A dragonfly’s world looks very different from the human world, so much so that it is impossible for humans to see what it sees.

Compound Eyes

Dragonflies have compound eyes, which consist of a number of smaller visual units. While houseflies have 6000 compound eyes, dragonflies have up to 30,000. These units present the dragonfly with one picture, not 30,000 little ones.

Multidirectional

The dragonfly eyes wrap almost all around its head, allowing it to see in all directions at once. With this 360 degree vision, it can see without moving its head. This includes behind it as well as underneath it.

Multihued

The colors humans see are detected by 3 color photoreceptors: red, blue, and green. Most species of dragonflies have many more color photoreceptors, up to 30 in fact. This means they are able to see colors humans cannot even imagine.

UV Light

As well as being able to see more colors than humans, dragonflies are able to see ultraviolet light. These rays of light from the sun are invisible to humans, however the dragonfly’s ability to see them helps it hunt its prey.

Slow Motion

Due to their incredible eyesight, dragonflies experience time differently than humans. Insects like flies and mosquitoes actually move very slowly for dragonflies. They can track a flying object and decide whether it is prey or not in less than 5 hundredths of a second.

Polarizing

Dragonflies can also see through a polarizing filter, much like when humans wear polarized sunglasses. This ability allows them to view prey that may be hiding underwater even if sunlight is hitting the water.

Dolphins

Dolphins have pretty good eyesight underwater. As their eyes are located on either side of their head, the dolphin’s range of vision is wider than a human's, including being able to see objects located behind them.

It is still relatively unknown how detailed dolphin vision is, or how many colors they can see. However, dolphins have another way to see the world, echolocation.

Seeing with Sound

Echolocation, also called sonar, is the act of sending out sound waves and listening to the changed sound waves bouncing back. Dolphins and bats are 2 species that regularly use echolocation to find food and navigate.

What They See

Recent studies have been looking into the visual picture a dolphin builds using echolocation. It is thought that dolphins are able to detect the shape of prey using echolocation, giving them an extra edge while hunting.

3-D World

Echolocation is also believed to give the dolphin a 3–D picture. When combined with regular sight, dolphins can determine shape, size, and the internal structure of objects near them. Research suggests that even details such as a diver’s belt can be seen using echolocation.

How Do We Know?

In order to test dolphins’ echolocation abilities, researchers blindfolded dolphins for a mimic game. The dolphins then had to copy a trainer’s actions.

Despite being blindfolded the dolphins were able to copy the trainer, suggesting that their echolocation skills could build a detailed picture.

Dogs

Despite popular opinion, dogs can actually see some color. They have 2 photoreceptors, blue and yellow. This means they are unable to see red and green, so finding a red ball on green grass is a very difficult task for a dog.

What dogs lack in color vision they make up for using another sense; their sense of smell.

Dog Vision

Without their acute sense of smell this is what the world looks like to a dog. With just 2 photoreceptors in the eye, a dog sees its surroundings mostly in the colors of blue, violet, and yellow.

A Dog's World

This is a stylized version of the world perceived through a dog’s nose. Its nose has over 300 million olfactory, or smell, receptors, and a human nose has only 6 million, meaning its sense of smell is at least 10,000 times better.

Long Distance

A dog can smell potential prey from long distances. This ability has been harnessed by humans in unusual ways. Researchers studying whale hormones use dogs to find orca feces. Dogs pick up the scent of the feces in choppy water over a mile away.

Dog Bulletin Boards

When dogs leave their mark on a fire hydrant or a pole they are providing a wealth of information. Like online profiles, the marks provide information including age, sex, whether they have been neutered, their stress levels, and even their social standing.

Tracking

A large part of a dog’s brain is dedicated to analyzing smells. This area is about 40 times larger than in a human brain. Dogs are able to smell and remember things that have already passed, allowing them to see back in time.

Snakes

Snakes in general have relatively poor vision compared to humans. Some species can only detect light, dark, and movement but others have quite keen eyesight. Snakes that live in trees tend to have the strongest eyesight, while burrowing snakes tend to have the weakest.

Several species of snake have independently evolved special heat pits which are used in conjunction with their vision to hunt their prey.

Heat Pits

Pit vipers, pythons, and some boas have evolved a set of infrared sensitive receptors located in the nose of the snake. This allows them to see the body heat of prey species, much like night vision goggles.

No Visual Input

These heat pits operate without any input from the eyes. In one study researchers blindfolded snakes and discovered their ability to find prey was not hindered. Researchers also covered the heat pits and discovered that the snake was still able to hunt for prey.

Details

It is unknown just how detailed the world is when using these heat pits. Spitting cobras can still aim venom at a human's eyes even when blindfolded, suggesting that the heat pits may give the snake more detail than previously thought.

Human Applications

It is thought that these heat pits are the most sensitive infrared detection receptors on Earth. Learning how they work could be key in developing new technology for use in defense, space exploration, and wildlife management.

Sharks

Researchers believe that sharks are either completely colorblind or can only see a few colors. Sharks rely heavily on other senses to detect and hunt prey, using their incredible sense of smell and an organ called the ampullae of Lorenzini.

These make the shark quite an efficient predator, as the white pointer shark, for example, has a hunt success rate of 47%.

Low Light Vision

Sharks have a layer of crystals located behind their retinas called the tapetum lucidum that allows them to see around 10 times better than a human in low light. However, their depth is limited, as sharks can only see clearly about 50 feet ahead.

Smell

Popular legend says a shark can smell a drop of blood in an Olympic–sized swimming pool. Research suggests that while the shark can detect blood at a low level, it's more like detecting a drop of blood in a backyard–sized swimming pool (still impressive!).

Electromagnetic Field

Sharks have an unusual organ called the ampullae of Lorenzini. This organ detects electromagnetic fields emitted when animals move. It allows them to see prey hiding in the sand as well as locate swimming prey very efficiently.

Surfer vs Seal

Unlike what is shown in the movies, sharks in general do not hunt humans. Many surfers have been attacked by sharks and research suggests this is because from below a surfer looks very much like a shark's preferred meal, seals.

Polar Bears

Polar bears live in an environment with no trees, caves, or other landmarks. Hills can become higher or lower due to snowfall and lakes can freeze. So how does a polar bear find its way around?

Although little research exists, it is believed that they see about as well as humans. Although they do have a protective membrane covering their eyes to protect them from ultraviolet light, polar bears rely on their sense of smell to find prey and live in their featureless environment.

Smelly Feet

One study showed that the feet of the polar bear have large sweat glands which could be used to mark a trail for other bears to follow. Another theory is that the bears track through their urine, also leaving a trail.

Seal Detection

A polar bear can smell a seal sitting on the ice from 20 miles away. With that same sense of smell, it can also detect carcasses and gladly feeds on the remains of beluga whales, grey whales, and walruses.

Under the Ice

Polar bears can also smell seals that may be buried in 3 feet of snow from over a mile away. While in the ice, the seals use a breathing hole, which the polar bear can detect.

Color Vision

It may seem surprising given the white–dominated landscape polar bears live in, but research suggests that polar bears have full color vision, similar to humans. With dichromatic vision, they do not see green, but they have good vision in low light conditions.