Numerous incredible animals with excellent visuals or eyesight make them outstanding and extraordinary. Each animal has adapted its vision to survive in its specific habitat.
Here is a short list of creatures with incredible vision capabilities and how the highest mammals (humans) compile the list.
1. Humans
Humans are mammals with the best eyesight. In comparison to the rest of the animal kingdom, humans have very adequate eyesight. We can see things with clarity from far reaches, have strong depth perception, and contrast between up to 1 million colors.
We have the best vision out of the mammal class and arguably are second only to birds when it comes to on-land vision.
2. Eagles
Eagles have great ability to spot prey from miles away. Visual sharpness is defined as the ability to focus on images from a given distance, and is measured on the 20/20 scale. Humans have described a ‘perfect’ eyesight to be a scale of 20/20, in essence, one with 20/20 vision can see clearly at a distance of 20 ft.
An eagle’s visual acuity is 4 times stronger than humans. With the sharpest distance vision of all creatures, they can see and focus in on prey as small as a mouse from up to 3 miles away. They have near panoramic vision, a heightened sense of color vision, and can see UV light.
3. Owls
When it comes to night vision, Owls have the best night vision ability, almost making them the king of the night. The owl has an abundance of light-sensitive rod cells – almost a million per square millimeter, a density of 5 times greater than humans.
In conclusion, the owl’s eyes are very large relative to the rest of its body. Two owl eyes weigh roughly an ounce, more than the eyes of a 200 lb. human. Large eyes and lots of tightly packed light-sensitive rods allow the owl to have the best night vision in the animal kingdom.
4. Sharks
When it comes to the underwater business, Sharks possess the greatest eye vision amongst other sea creatures. Like owls, shark eyes are dense with retinal rods, which allows them to see well in dark and murky waters. In addition, their eyes contain a layer of mirrored crystal tissue called the tapetum lucidum.
It is estimated that in perfect conditions a shark can see 30-50 feet ahead of them. When factoring in their ability to see underwater in unfavorable conditions, it is estimated that they can see around 10 times better than humans can underwater.
5. Chameleons
Chameleons have the broadest field of vision, the chameleon’s capability to revolve each eye independently of each other allows it to see at nearly every angle without moving its head. It can see 90° vertically and 180° horizontally for a total field of vision of 342°, nearly a full 360°.
The ability to see almost every square inch of its surroundings without having to move anything but its eyes allows the chameleon to hunt without scaring off its prey.
6. Butterflies
Butterflies have the best colour vision. The human retina has 3 types of cones that allow it to perceive color – blue, green, and red. In contrast, butterfly retinas do not contain cones, rather they have 6 or more photoreceptor classes with unique spectral capabilities. The bluebottle butterfly has at least 15 different types of photoreceptors.
In addition, it is believed that many of these photoreceptors are used to detect very specific types of color stimuli, such as objects hidden in vegetation or fast moving objects in the sky.
