Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Opinion...

...do owls and other animals that see well in the dark sleep as well as animals that don't have that gift? It must be like the lights are on all the time right? Are they perhaps more uneasy because they can always see whats going on? Is that why so many of them are nocturnal?????
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3 comments:

Rachel said...

Most nocturnal animals can see in the dark because of the physiology of their eyes. They have, basically, a reflective portion inside their eye that allows the light to...well..reflect...making it easier to see. That's why when you look directly at a nocturnal animal directly, their eyes look all eerie.

So I think if they close them, and no light gets in, then it won't reflect, and therefore isn't any more brighter than non-nocturnal animals.

I think...

So it's not like the lights are always on.

But I bet things are way too fucking bright in the day.

That's probably too scientific of an answer to be interesting.

March 21, 2008 at 12:29 PM
Unknown said...

I was so going to write all of that... and then I saw that there was no need. AMAZING, Rachel, AMAZING.

March 27, 2008 at 9:27 PM
Anonymous said...

(Boring, but informative, if you care!)

Yep- that reflective membrane Rachel mentioned is called a "tapetum," which we can see when it's caught in the light... usually green in dogs and cats, and, to some extent, as red eye in humans. It reflects the image an extra time in the eye to maximize the light available.

Nocturnal animals also have a massive number of rods in their eyes, which are the photo receptor cells responsible for discerning black & white. They have a very small amount of cone cells, which are responsible for seeing color. (The opposite of diurnal animals, including humans.) Thus, when it's light out, nocturnal animals aren't blinded- everything's just extremely blurry because there's little contrast to define objects' borders. Imagine editing a graphic and increasing the brightness level to the max.

Humans can condition their eyes to improve their own night vision.

Way too much info, I know, but I appreciate every chance I get to use it. (You might imagine how rare that is.) Ask me about triboluminesence.... =)

March 28, 2008 at 12:27 AM

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