{"id":10797,"date":"2022-02-10T16:15:59","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T16:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/?p=10797"},"modified":"2022-02-10T21:06:28","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T21:06:28","slug":"do-you-see-what-i-see-how-different-species-see-colour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/en\/do-you-see-what-i-see-how-different-species-see-colour\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You See What I See? How Different Species See Colour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever wondered what animals see and how it compares to human vision?\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

Do we see the same depth? Can they see further away? Can they see <\/span>colour<\/span> the same way we do? Well yes!!! \u2026\u00a0 and no\u2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A<\/span> B<\/span>rief<\/span>,<\/span> I<\/span>nformal <\/span>S<\/span>cience <\/span>L<\/span>esson<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Long-eared
Long-eared owl \u00a9Debbie Oppermann | CWF Photo Club<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Humans have the ability to see <\/span>colour<\/span> thanks to the presence of three cone photoreceptors in the eye. The number of cone receptors a species has determines how <\/span><\/span>well<\/span><\/span> they see different <\/span>colours<\/span>. Humans have three different types of cone receptors, known as trichromats, which allows us to see what we do. And you\u2019ve guessed it \u2013 dichromats have two cone receptors which gives the ability to see some <\/span>colour<\/span> along with shades of black, gray and white, and species with monochromats only have one type of cone, which results in seeing shades of black, white and gray, and sadly, <\/span><\/span>no<\/span><\/span> colour<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Trichromat Team<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Whitefish
Whitefish spawning \u00a9 Matthew Miller | CWF Photo Club<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This may not come as a surprise given the many biological similarities that primates like chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans have to humans, but you\u2019ll be interested to know that all of these mammals have the same cone receptors as humans, meaning they see colour<\/span>! One that may come as a surprise is that most (not all but many) fish also have trichromatic cone receptors, which means they are able to see <\/span>colour<\/span> underwater. Birds also have very good <\/span>colour<\/span> vision which explains how female birds are drawn and more likely to choose a mate with brightly <\/span>coloured<\/span> plumage. I\u2019m looking at you, Northern Cardinals!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Dichromat Bunch<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Snowshow
Snowshow Hare \u00a9 Sandy Thompson | CWF Photo Club<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our furry companions like cats, dogs and rabbits have dichromat cone receptors \u2013 so they see <\/span><\/span>some<\/span><\/span> colour<\/span> as well as shades of black, white and gray. Interestingly enough, our puppy pals have cone cells that pick up more yellow to blue <\/span>colours<\/span> than the other shades on the <\/span>colour<\/span> wheel.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Monochromat Crew<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Raccoon
Raccoon foraging in woods \u00a9 James Tuckerman | CWF Photo Club<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Monochromat mammals who see in shades of black, white and gray include various bats, rodents and the common raccoon. One common denominator between these species mentioned is that they are nocturnal, so their monochromat vision gives them a special advantage at night. This may or may not come as a surprise, but most marine mammals are also monochromats! This includes seals, sea lions and walruses, dolphins, sharks and whales.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Of course, this list seems pretty simple, but there are other species that don\u2019t quite fit into these categories \u2013 like snakes using thermal sensing to see. Some insects like butterflies see in ultraviolet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us know if you\u2019d like to see a story here regarding these incredible creatures that see in a whole different way!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever wondered what animals see and how it compares to human vision?\u00a0 Do we see the same depth? Can they see further away? Can they see colour the…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":10798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[631],"tags":[9177],"class_list":["post-10797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-connect-with-nature","tag-wildlife-biology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10797"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10843,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10797\/revisions\/10843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}