Project on the topic of how animals see. How do animals see? What colors are there? Cow vision: the grass is not greener, but you can see more of it

The vertical pupil allows different species of animals to see equally well both at night and during the day. But scientists from the University of California at Berkeley believe that cats need such eyes not only to see well in the dark.

Martin Banks and his colleagues from the University of California at Berkeley believe that the narrow vertical pupil reveals the ecological specialization of the animal. It is a distinctive feature of cats and other ambush predators. The slit pupil allows the animal to accurately determine the distance to the victim and calculate the force of the jump.

Scientists also found that this conclusion is only true for small predators up to 42 cm tall. The taller the predator, the smaller the difference in sharpness between the target and the environment.

This explains why Pallas' cats and larger "sprinter" hunters have round pupils.

Herbivorous artiodactyls and equids, in turn, have horizontal pupils and can see 340 degrees. Goats are able to keep their pupils perpendicular to the ground even when they tilt their heads down. This allows the animals to see not only the predator approaching from behind, but also possible escape routes.

Learn more about how pets see the world.

Cats

When talking about excellent vision, a person means the ability to see clear, colorful images near, far and in peripheral vision. Many of the parameters familiar to us turn out to be insignificant for a cat. The vertical pupil in the eye of a predator protects it from direct sunlight, so in bright light it narrows to a thin slit.

Near the photoreceptors of a cat’s eye there are special formations - tapetums, which “intercept” light and direct it back to the retina, which allows the cat to see in the twilight as during the day, and at night as a person sees in the twilight. Thanks to tamepum, a cat's eyes glow in the dark.

All cats perceive the world in shades of gray, green and blue. Surprisingly, cats are not distinguished by visual acuity in the usual sense; they see small details blurry, since during the hunt they focus mainly on sounds and movements. In addition, the vision of a night hunter covers 270 degrees, with each eye distinguishing up to 45% of the image, thanks to which the cat is able to calculate the distance of a long jump with an error of up to 3-4 centimeters.

For a long time there was an opinion that dogs see the world in black and white. In fact, they distinguish colors, but in a slightly different way. The human retina contains 3 types of cones responsible for color perception: the first are sensitive to long-wave radiation (red and orange), the second to medium-wave radiation (yellow and green), and the third to short-wave radiation (blue and violet).

Dogs lack the first type of cone, and as a result they are not sensitive to orange-red color and can perceive it similarly to yellow-green. In this case, the color that the owner identifies as blue-green will be white for the dog, but the dog distinguishes shades of gray more than other creatures. The field of vision of dogs is “stretched”, as a result of which a picture of 270 degrees falls into it (for comparison, the same parameter for human perception is 60-70 degrees less).

Dogs, like cats, are guided by movement, and are able to perceive a stationary object at a distance of 600 meters (while they catch a moving one from 800-900 meters). Interesting fact: for dog breeds with floppy ears, the main thing is vision, while those with erect ears rely primarily on hearing.

These rodents have long been domesticated, but even if a rat is an uninvited guest in your house, you can be sure that it does not even suspect your presence at the other end of the room if you do not move and do not call for help with a piercing cry.

The fact is that the maximum distance for a rat’s vision is only about 1 meter, this is due to panoramic vision and laterally placed eyes, which help the rat to distinguish surrounding objects. Rat binocular vision, unlike humans, captures several separate images from different angles.

Rats can perfectly distinguish the distance to an object, but due to the low coverage, this is only relevant in a limited area. Rats also lack color vision. Like dogs, they distinguish between gray colors well and perceive the blue and green parts of the spectrum, but for them the red color is equivalent to absolute darkness. But rats see ultraviolet radiation perfectly, and even distinguish shades of ultraviolet.

Pet birds have very good eyesight. The viewing angle, thanks to the position of the eyes, is 360 degrees, so that not a single detail in the environment can be hidden from Kesha. Of course, parrots see the world in color, as evidenced by the bright plumage created for individuals to recognize each other.

Unfortunately, parrots do not see close objects well, therefore, having noticed food from afar, they orient themselves close by using the tip of their beak. Thanks to highly developed eye muscles, parrots can look at two separate objects at the same time, but by evening they become “blind” and are no longer able to navigate in the dark, so it is recommended to cover the cage with the birds at night.

But, for example, sparrows see the world in pink. The endings of the light-sensitive nerves in their fiber have oily red-yellow drops, thanks to which the sparrow literally looks at life through rose-colored glasses.

The horse's viewing angle is 350 degrees, which means that the horse does not see only what is under his muzzle, above his forehead and right in front of his nose. That's why a horse won't pick up a piece of apple lying right in front of it - it simply doesn't see it. But horses see perfectly in the dark and are able to accurately estimate the distance to objects.

Few people dare to have such a charming pet in their home, but if you are the happy owner of a snake, you should know how it sees its owner. The snake's eye is covered with a thin, leathery film, the result of fused eyelids. Towards the beginning of molting, the snake's eyes become cloudy, and this makes vision difficult. In the future, the film will come off when you change the “clothing”.

It turns out that snake vision deteriorates several times during its life and returns to the reptile. Diurnal snakes have a round pupil, while nocturnal snakes have a narrow vertical pupil. Binocular vision allows the snake to form an image from the retinas of both eyes, but this vision is focused primarily on thermal information. Thus, a snake is more likely to see the contours, size, distance to another animal, and this image allows one to identify a warm-blooded mouse on cool soil or a cold-blooded frog among the warm vapors of the earth. The picture shows an example of how a snake sees a person.

The world as animals see it has only recently opened up to humans thanks to the development of scientific technologies. Many creatures see our world as gray and blurry, but some see it in complete darkness and even in spectra in which humans cannot see the world around us.

For example, animals from the family equine(horses, zebras) see the world using peripheral vision, because their eyes are located on the sides of their heads and their viewing angle is 350 degrees. They perfectly see what is on their side, but there is one drawback - they do not see what is in front of their nose. A horse sees two pictures and cannot combine them into a single image like a human. They also see shades of green and blue, but the rest is blue.

This is the picture a horse sees

Monkey see like a person. They distinguish between green, red and blue colors. But some species of primates do not see them.

Birds see a wider range of colors than humans. They are able to see ultraviolet light. Pigeons can see 5 zones of the spectrum and distinguish between millions of different shades.

U vulture, vulture or eagle- binocular vision. Thanks to this, they can find prey at an altitude of thousands of meters.

What owls going blind during the day is a myth. They see well both day and night, but at night their vision becomes sharper and they see 100 times better than a person.

Cats and dogs do not have very good eyesight, so they rely more on their nose and ears. Cats have poor color vision, but they have better night vision. Dogs have slightly better vision than cats - they can distinguish between yellow and blue colors.

This is the range of colors dogs can distinguish

This is how cats see in the dark

The eyes are sensitive to movement, so they do not notice prey that is not moving. But at night, their eyes pick up infrared signals, i.e. the heat that the body of animals radiates.

This is how a snake sees a person in the dark

Insects, thanks to the special structure of their eyes, see the world around them like a mazay. In the eye of insects there are many corneal lenses, and each lens transmits its own image and is a particle of the overall image. Some insects have up to 30,000 of these lenses in their eyeballs.

An interesting fact is that some representatives of marine fauna have better vision than terrestrial animals. For example, he has the most thorough vision. While most animals have only one receptor responsible for the perception of color, this crustacean has 8 types. No one even knows exactly how many colors his eyes can distinguish, but this figure will be fantastic.

Most mammals do not distinguish red from green. They have long lost this ability inherent in birds, fish and reptiles. After all, their distant ancestors, who inhabited the planet at the same time as dinosaurs, occupied a special ecological niche - they began to lead a nocturnal lifestyle.

On cold nights, the dinosaurs' body temperature dropped sharply, as did their activity. But warm-blooded mammals crawled out of their holes and shelters closer to midnight and, emboldened, wandered in search of food. They paid for this freedom with visual defects. They didn't care how the prey was colored. Their world was gray, black, whitish, but not colorful.

This is how cats and dogs see (picture on the right)

But for humans, monkeys, mice, color vision is often life-saving. The red tomato is edible; green is inedible. The golden grain has ripened; green no.

Cats, like any nocturnal predators, see well in the dark. In the dark, their pupils dilate noticeably, reaching 14 mm in diameter. In humans, the diameter of the pupil does not exceed eight millimeters.

The cat's world looks faded and pale. Scientific wisdom says: "During the day everything around the cat is gray". Only certain colors, for example blue, brighten her horizons.

In fact, why does a cat need shimmering colors? Its original prey - a mouse or a sparrow - is equally edible, no matter what colors Nature paints its feathers and fur. Yes, and there is no such choice of colors: gray and brown tones predominate.

Dogs They also do not distinguish red and orange colors very well, but they clearly see blue and violet, as well as ultraviolet rays. In addition, they are able to distinguish up to forty shades of gray.

Cats can best see objects that are located at some distance from them. They see especially well at a distance of two to six meters. This is very convenient for hunting birds or mice. At this distance, the cat can still sneak up on its prey and watch it closely, so that later, seizing the moment, it can rush and grab it.

Monkey, like humans, they distinguish between red and green tones. Trying to explain this “regression” of vision, scientists have long suggested that color vision helped monkeys distinguish ripe fruits from unripe ones. Recently, biologists Nathaniel Dominy and Peter Lucas from the University of Hong Kong put forward another theory - it appealed to many of their colleagues. In African forests, Domini and Lucas observed what leaves chimpanzees and other monkeys ate. They usually chose young leaves, tender, nutritious, easily digested by the body - and usually colored in a reddish tint.

Perhaps it was this menu that taught generations of primates to distinguish the color red. It is curious that in the forests of South America, young leaves on trees rarely have a reddish tint, and local monkeys, like other mammals, do not distinguish between red and green.

Bees They also don’t notice the color red: for them it’s the same as black. Botanists have long noticed that red flowers are relatively rare in nature, and they are also pollinated by butterflies. It turns out that white, yellow and blue tones are attractive to bees. However, their world is colored differently than ours.

After all, people are also blind in many ways. The range of colors available to bees is wider than ours. They see ultraviolet light.

Many flowers that appear white to us appear to bees in a different guise. For them, bright blue-violet patterns flash among the monotonously pale petals, indicating where to look for nectar. This is how we can easily see a ripe purple plum among the green foliage.

For birds of prey, seeing ultraviolet light is good for a different reason. This helps them find prey. After all, small rodents mark their territory with a stream of urine, which glows with ultraviolet light. The hawk easily notices these strange traces left by the mouse near the dwelling.

Vision birds phenomenal. A kite from a height of 2000 meters is able to notice carrion lying on the ground. The eyes of a bird of prey can rightfully be called unique binoculars.

Birds' eyes are structured differently than ours. A person has a “yellow spot” in the middle of the fundus of the eye. There are the most light-sensitive cells here. This is the area of sharpest vision. There is only one “yellow spot” in our eye, but birds have two. They can see two objects at once that are located away from each other equally well.

So, thrush at the same moment he can peer intently at the worm he is planning to grab, and at the cat that is sneaking towards him. The second "yellow spot" lies slightly deeper than the first. It magnifies the object the bird is looking at. This is why the bird has eyes “like binoculars.”

Owls have always amazed us with their ability to hunt at dusk. But, as studies have shown, in complete darkness, owls, like us, cannot see anything. And they catch small rodents “by ear”.

The lens of the eye is especially amazing cormorant. Its optical power changes by 50 dioptres. Therefore, the cormorant can see equally well in the air and under water.

frogs They only notice moving objects. They do not see a motionless worm or insect and can die of hunger in the midst of an abundance of food if the food does not move. Interestingly, frogs distinguish enemies from prey by size. Seeing a large object, the frog flees. And the little one catches up and grabs it. Therefore, it is easy to deceive a frog by swinging something inedible the size of a worm in front of it on a string.

Eyes chameleon can rotate in different directions independently of each other. And he sees two pictures at the same time: a tasty fly in front and a bird of prey behind. The eyes transmit information to the brain, and the chameleon decides where to move.

Large eyes flies consist of many small eyes - facets. Each facet perceives only part of the image. The parts are put together into one picture, and the fly sees a “mosaic panel” of the surrounding world.

Among the most ancient inhabitants of the Earth crabs stalked eyes. They provide their owners with a 360-degree view in any plane and distinguish not only the color, but also the shape of objects.

If gecko If a speck or dust gets into the eye, he will wash it away ... with his tongue. And all because the huge eyes of this reptile lack movable eyelids. This is why geckos cannot blink like humans. And they are forced to use the language “not for its intended purpose.”

U jumping spiders eight eyes. Two large and six small. The large ones are equipped with muscles and allow the spider to follow its prey while remaining motionless. And the small ones are located so that the spider notices everything that is happening behind and above.

(based on materials from the magazines Friend No. 8, 2005 ZooPrice No. 8, 2004; No. 10, 2004Geolenok No. 10, 2004)

This is how cats and dogs see (picture on the right)

But for humans, monkeys, mice, color vision is often life-saving. The red tomato is edible; green is inedible. The golden grain has ripened; green no.

The cat's world looks faded and pale. Scientific wisdom says: "During the day everything around the cat is gray". Only certain colors, for example blue, brighten her horizons.

After all, people are also blind in many ways. The range of colors available to bees is wider than ours. They see ultraviolet light.

Vision birds phenomenal. A kite from a height of 2000 meters is able to notice carrion lying on the ground. The eyes of a bird of prey can rightfully be called unique binoculars.

Owls have always amazed us with their ability to hunt at dusk. But, as studies have shown, in complete darkness, owls, like us, cannot see anything. And they catch small rodents “by ear”.

The lens of the eye is especially amazing cormorant. Its optical power changes by 50 dioptres. Therefore, the cormorant can see equally well in the air and under water.

(based on materials from the magazines Friend No. 8, 2005 ZooPrice No. 8, 2004; No. 10, 2004Geolenok No. 10, 2004)

This project contains material about how different animals see. It all depends on who the animal is: predator or prey. The author introduces us to the structure of the animal's eye and explains the reason why animals see at night, provides interesting facts about whales and nocturnal predators. In her project, the student talks about her favorite cats.

Project “How do animals see?” prepared while studying the topics “Diversity of Animals”, “Reproduction and Development of Animals”, “Protection of Animals” during educational classes on the surrounding world in grade 3 using the textbook by A.A. Pleshakova, ed.-M. : Education, 2010. Educational and educational complex "School of Russia"

The project can be used in extracurricular activities.

Project “How do animals see?” (Project for gifted children “Scarlet Sails”)

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Slide captions:

MBOU "Krasnoanuiskaya Public School" Methodological passport of the project on the topic "How do animals see?" The creative name of the project is “What are the perceptions of animals?”

Relevance of the topic I love animals very much, but the more I learn about their lives, habits, habits, the more interesting it becomes for me to learn about how animals see? There is an assumption that animals see everything upside down. My task is to find out as much as possible about the perception of animals, to prove or disprove this idea.

Fundamental question. How do animals see? Additional Problem Questions What are the perceptions of animals? How does the eye work? The secret of night vision. How do animal eyes recognize colors? Did you know that...? My favorite cats.

Through independent research, find out whether all mammals see in the same way as people, and whether for each species of animal the ability to see is as important as for us - people; Form the concepts of ecological culture; Form the skills of a competence-based approach to problem solving. Didactic goals of the project:

Methodological objectives of the project: Educational: to develop practical skills in working with information resources. Learn to use new computer technologies. Developmental: develop creative and cognitive activity. Educational: to cultivate love for our smaller brothers.

Support: 1.Viewing slides and illustrative material depicting the object of interest for research. 2. Working with printed materials. 3. Use of Internet resources.

Research work on the project “How do animals see?”

How does the eye work? The cat's eyes are set close to each other in front of the head and are adapted for spatial vision. This means that he can follow the victim with both eyes. The cat's viewing angle is 185 degrees. It has a vertical field of view.

The rabbit's viewing angle is 360 degrees. This means that he can see every potential enemy from any direction. When a person looks forward, his angle of vision, even without moving his head, is about 200 degrees.

The mouse must see what is happening around. Her eyes are located on both sides of her head. The ability of spatial vision in this case is limited. She has a horizontal field of vision.

The structure of the animal's eye

Night vision

Did you know that...

My cats

Preview:

MBOU "Krasnoanuiskaya secondary school"

Research work on the project

“How do animals see?”

Completed by: Alena Istomina,

3rd grade student

Head: Alla Ivanovna Zinovieva - primary school teacher

S. Soloneshnoye,

Soloneshensky district, Altai region.

Work plan.

What is the perception of animals?
How does the eye work?
The secret of night vision.
How do animal eyes recognize colors?
Did you know that...?
My favorite cats.

What is the perception of animals?

Slide 7

The structure of the eyes of mammals is practically the same. What and how much an animal sees depends on the location of the eyes on the head.

Predators (for example, a cat), in order to catch their prey, must see it well. Their eyes are set at the front of their heads, giving them spatial vision. They are able to estimate the distance to the visible victim and surrounding objects.

Visual acuity depends on the number of visual cells in the retina. Most of them are found in predators, which can clearly distinguish the observed object even at a great distance. To a person, such an object seems like a stain.

Rabbits, mice, and deer, which are often victims of predators, have eyes set on both sides of the head. This allows them to clearly see everything that is happening around them. The viewing angle is wide, but the image clarity is very low. However, this allows them to lock onto every possible enemy around.

The cat has a visual angle of -185 degrees. By vision you can determine which animals are prey and which are hunters. For example, all steppe animals must have good vision in order to spot an enemy or find prey. Slide 8

A rabbit's visual angle is 360 degrees, while a human's visual angle, even without moving his head, is about 200 degrees. Slide 9

The eyes of humans and most primates are set to provide a wide angle of vision vertically, while those of hunted animals have a wide angle of vision horizontally. Slide 10

How does the eye work?

Slide11

The eyes of all mammals operate on the same principle. The most important part of the eye iseyeball with optic nerve.In front of him is cornea, it passes light into the eye, where the sun's rays are refracted and directed to a specific location. Behind the cornea is iris. In its center is located pupil , which narrows or widens so as to let through retina a certain number of rays.

Located behind the pupil lens , through which the rays enter the photosensitive back wall of the eyeball - retina The function of the lens is to refract the light. This is possible by changing its shape through tension or contraction of the ciliary muscle. This is how the lens allows you to see distant and close objects.

Retina consists of layers of light- and color-sensitive cells connected to the brain. These cells receive the inverted image of objects, and the optic nerves transmit it to the brain.

The brain sorts messages and creates an image from them that corresponds to reality.

Thus, I conclude that animals do not see objects upside down, as many assume, but normally.

Night vision

Slide 12-13

In complete darkness, animals cannot see, just like people. The ability to see at night depends on the intensity of light falling on the retina. The eyes of nocturnal animals are larger and more prominent, which means they are more sensitive to light. If you look at the eyes of a fox or a cat at night, we will see that they glow. The visual acuity of these animals depends on the density of visual cells. The retina of their eyes contains much morerods than cones. Sticks are sensitive to light voltage and transmit black and white images. During the day, the eyes of these animals must be protected from excess light, so the cat’s pupils take the form of narrow slits during the day.

Vision of flowers.

Colored objects are easier to distinguish. How do animal eyes recognize colors? Electromagnetic waves emitted by objects have different lengths. Longer waves are perceived as red-orange, shorter ones as green and blue.

The retina consists of several layers, among which there is a layer of cells that are sensitive to light and color. There are two types of cells in the retina: sticks, sensitive to the degree of light voltage, and cones, sensitive to color.

Some mammals (mainly primates) have 3 kinds of cones: one is sensitive to blue, another to green, and a third to yellow-green and red. The brain processes information and creates a color image from it in good lighting, and a gray image at night.

Cats that are nocturnal are probably color blind. For a hedgehog, it is important to see the color yellow; it also does not distinguish other colors, just as the human eye is insensitive to ultraviolet radiation.

Did you know that..

Slide14

A whale's eyes are so far apart that it cannot see the same object with both eyes.
At night, the animals' eyes reflect light and glow in different colors. The fox's eyes are yellow, and the rabbit's eyes are red.
Light has difficulty penetrating the water. For this reason, colors may vary depending on the depth of the water. At a depth of 25 meters, it seems that the blood is not red, but green.

My cats.

Slide15

I have 5 cats. We love them very much. The oldest cat has beady hair, so we named her Busya. The second adult cat is three-haired, her name is Murka.

Our Busya is very cunning. When she is hungry, she holds on to the table with one paw and steals food from the plate with the other. Sometimes she fights with other cats.

Murka recently got 3 kittens. They are very funny. One kitten was born just like its mother - three-haired, and the other two were black and white. Murka needs to eat well now because she is feeding her kittens.

There are also three children in our family. It's me and two younger brothers. We all take care of our beloved animals: we feed them, wash their dishes, keep the house clean.