When the sun goes down many animals wake up and begin their activities. Heading out into the country to track and observe wildlife at night is an exciting method of observing animals not typically seen. Among the methods of identifying nocturnal animals is through their eyes. Often the eyes give off a glow at night that is easily recognizable.
Keep the headlamp on the forehead with the light setting as low as possible for you to move about in the dark. Keep a lens cover handy for when you hear or spot animals. A lens cover is anything that allows some light to escape, yet mutes the light so as not to blind or startle the nocturnal animal.
Shine the muted-covered light to the animals direction when you hear it or spot movement. Wait for the light to catch the animals eyes. Look for the reflective color of the eyes and the shape. Look for the eyelid shape over the pupil and the slits orientation. For example, when encountering wild felines at night, look for a heavy upper eyelid, and a pupil that is perpendicular to the eye shape. Most wild felines eyes glow green at night.
Check the shape of the eye to see if it is a larger and more round than oval shape. This is a good indication of a deer. As the light reflects into the deers eyes, you will see a red or green, near pupil-less reflection. Black bear have large round eyes at night and are set closer to the ground than a deers. A bears eyes are near pupil-less and glow red or green.
Look to see if the pupil is on a parallel pattern to the eye oval and is glowing red. This is a clear indicator of a wild canine such as a coyote or wolf. Red fox eyes are more feline with a perpendicular pupil and a red glow. Fox are identified over other canines based on the pupil and the angled oval shape versus a rounder curved oval.
Look into trees or rafters to find owls. An owls eyes glow near yellow with large open pupils.
A former Alaskan of 20 years, Eric Cedric now resides in California. Hes published in “Outside” and “Backpacker” and has written a book on life in small-town Alaska, “North by Southeast.” Cedric was a professional mountain guide and backcountry expedition leader for 18 years. He worked in Russia, Iceland, Greece, Turkey and Belize. Cedric attended Syracuse University and is a private pilot.
Why Do Animal Eyes Shine at Night?
Before we look at what colors go with actual animals, let’s talk a bit about the science.
Many animals have a thin reflective membrane at the back of their eyes, known as tapetum lucidum. This reflective membrane layer lies behind the iris and acts as a retroreflector, which means it reflects light back at the source – in this case, back at your flashlight.
It reflects visible light passing through the retina back to increase the amount of light on the photoreceptors. The presence of a tapetum lucidum gives nocturnal carnivores superb night vision.
The animals reflect the light directly towards the light source to give the retina a succinct to analyze. Cats have incredible night vision because the reflective effects boost their night vision.
By matching the original and reflected light, the reflective layer maintains the ’s contrast and sharpness. The reflective layer uses constructive interference to increase the amount of light passing through the animal’s retina.
This phenomenon is also known as eyeshine because the glowing eyes are simply reflections of the light source trained at the animal. Shining light directly on the face of an animal with a tapetum lucidum causes the eyes to glow.
Eyeshine comes in various colors, including white, yellow, red, blue, pink, or green. Since the reflective layer is iridescent, the pupils’ color is affected by the angle of vision, eye color, and the mineral makeup of the tapetum lucidum.
A tapetum lucidum improves an animal’s ability to see in the dark and low-light conditions. The reflective eye membrane is typical in mammals, reptiles, invertebrates, and amphibians.
The eyeshine color depends on the animal and can be red, orange, yellow, pink, blue, or green. The sheen depends on eye color, the shape of the eyes, and the light’s angle shining on the animal.
The intensity of the eye glow varies between species, with some animals glowing brighter than the rest. The animals with the brightest eyeshine have excellent night vision because their eyes have fewer cones. Unfortunately, perfect night vision comes with limited color vision or complete color blindness.
Most of the nocturnal predators have a tapetum lucidum to help them see in the dark. Dogs, house cats, big cats, alligators, and ferrets are some of the predators with eyes that reflect in the darkness.
Improved night vision is essential to these predators because it allows them to track prey in pitch darkness.
Cool Fact: Some predatory fish, like walleye, need excellent night vision to hunt in the dark, deep waters. As a result, they have reflective eyes.
Interestingly, while owls have eyes that glow in the dark, they lack a tapetum lucidum in their eyes.
Unsurprisingly, some of the prey targeted by the predators with improved night vision developed a tapetum lucidum layer. The layer evolved as a defense mechanism to help these herbivores detect predators in low-light conditions.
Some non-predators with excellent night vision include cattle, deer, pigs, camels, kangaroos, and horses.
Wolves have a special light-reflecting surface right behind their retinas called the tapetum lucidum that helps animals see better in the dark. When light enters the eye, it’s supposed to hit a photoreceptor that transmits the information to the brain. But sometimes the light doesn’t hit the photoreceptor, so the tapetum lucidum acts as a mirror to bounce it back for a second chance.
Eyes that glow in the pitch-black night make for many a scary tale. But why do wolves’ eyes glow in the dark?
Which Animals Have GREEN Eyes At Night?
We will continue by listing a couple of animals with green eyes in the dark. These are a little rarer as most animals will have yellow or red eyes in the dark.
Docs can have green eyes in the dark. This cute little golden retriever pup certainly looks adorable with the glowing eyes in the dark.
When you do see glowing eyes in the dark it will often be a cat or a dog. This is simply because these are some of the most common animals around areas where people live.
Here’s a cat with bright green eyes
The eyes of the fox are also very intensive at night. They typically keep to themselves at night when they hunt. But if you do encounter them you should look for green (or yellow) eyes in the dark.
This fox has a mix of green and white eyes as he stares at you.
Opossums will often leave a green reflection when they are lit up at night. Here are five Opossums in a tree.
FAQ
What do Wolf eyes look like at night?
What animals have red reflective eyes at night?