How Animals Perceive The World

By: Stacy Bustamante

Bumble Bee

The visual receptor cells of bees allow them to

transduce ultraviolet light better than we can with our normal visual receptor cells.

The bees have compound eyes; hundreds of single eyes (called ommatidia)

arranged next to each other, each with its own lens and each looking in a different

direction.

Bumble BeeVision

Dog

Dogs only see very pale shades of color, and many have

vision that is comparable to a human who is red-green

color blind, which means they can't tell the difference between red and green. However, they do have

better peripheral and night vision than us, with eyes

that are much more sensitive to movement.

DogVision

Squirrel

Though humans can see the entire visible light spectrum

and would be able to appreciate the rich greens of the grass, squirrels are red and green color blind, and

only perceive the blues, yellows, and greys of the

landscape.

SquirrelVision

Sea Turtle

Sea Turtles have a special feature which perhaps

evolved to help them see on the dark sea floor; their

individual photoreceptors contain red oil droplets which

obstruct shorter light wavelengths. As a result,

they can easily pick up reds and oranges and yellows, but cannot really perceive any of the longer light wavelengths

such as green or blue or violet.

Sea TurtleVision

Snake

Snakes will use their normal eyes during the day, but at night it will change over to its

other pair of "eyes". These pit organs can pick up infrared heat signals from warm objects in their surroundings. During the

day, a snake's vision is very dependent on movement.

SnakeVision

Shrimp

Shrimp have the least developed vision on our list. They have compound eyes similar to an

insect, but give much less detail. Luckily, shrimps are

very good at picking up signals from sudden movements in their

surroundings. This is one of their best defences against

predators

ShrimpVision

Bird

Daytime birds see a greater range of colors than humans, including

ultraviolet light. As humans, we have never actually seen many of these

colors, so a bird's actual vision would be very difficult (if not impossible) to

emulate here. It is generally accepted that color is much more

vibrant in a typical bird's vision than it is in humans. Hunting birds such as

the eagle, kestrel and vulture are know to have outstanding binocular vision, enabling them to easily spot prey from thousands of feet away.

BirdVision

The End

(Applause, please =) )