We all know that cats have much more excellent hearing and vision than we humans. Can cats see in complete darkness? Without any light, like humans, cats can see nothing.

Light bounces off objects’ surfaces and our eyes gather the light and refract it to the retina so that we and other animals can see the objects. So for sure cats can not see in a completely dark environment without any light.

cats can not see in darkCats have much better vision than humans and can see very well in the dark. Cats only need about one-sixth of the light we need to see in a dim environment and that is because they can make every use of the light due to the cat’s perfect eye structure.

Firstly, cats’ eyes are bigger than most humans and therefore can accept more light.

cats eyes are bigSecondly, their pupils can dilate to a full circle and reach out to the outer diameter of their iris, and that enables the maximum amount of light to enter their eyes.

cat pupilsThirdly, the cat’s eyes have tapetum which is a layer of tissue that can reflect the available light back to the retina, and that works similar to the aluminum reflectors photographers use. When a strong light shines on a cat’s eyes or you see them at an odd angle, especially at night, you can see a weird reflection and that is the tapetum layer.

pupils of cats eyes are ovalThe pupils of cats’ eyes are oval rather than round and are larger than that of humans. They can also change the size of eye pupils quickly according to the light, and that enables them to detect movements quickly. To us, we can see that cats act quickly to little insect’s movements, and are keen on little movements.

All in all, even cats can not see things in complete darkness, but they can see much better than humans in a dim environment due to their eye structure.



source: https://wopet.com/cats/can-cats-see-in-complete-darkness/