Cats' vision differs from that of humans in several key ways:
1. **Night Vision**: Cats have superior night vision compared to humans. Their eyes have a higher number of rod cells, which are sensitive to low light, and a reflective layer behind the retina called the tapetum lucidum that improves their ability to see in the dark.
2. **Color Vision**: Cats are less adept at distinguishing colors than humans. While humans have three types of color receptors (cones) allowing for a wide range of colors, cats have only two, making their color vision less vibrant and more limited, similar to a color-blind human.
3. **Field of View**: Cats have a wider field of view compared to humans. Their eyes are positioned more to the sides of their head, giving them a broader peripheral vision. This helps them detect movement from various angles, which is useful for hunting.
4. **Visual Acuity**: While cats are excellent at detecting movement and seeing in low light, their visual acuity (sharpness) is lower than that of humans. Cats can see things clearly up to about 20 feet, while humans can see clearly over much greater distances.
5. **Focus and Depth Perception**: Cats have better depth perception and can focus more quickly on moving objects, which is advantageous for hunting. However, their ability to focus on close objects is not as strong as in humans, and they may rely more on other senses, such as smell and hearing, for close-range tasks.
Overall, these adaptations make cats highly effective hunters and navigators in low-light conditions, although their color vision and fine detail recognition are less developed compared to humans.