What do other animals see?
What do other animals see?
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Learning Intention
We are learning about how vision and light perception in other organisms can be different from the way humans see.
Success Criteria
I can compare and describe how other animals' sense of sight can vary greatly from what humans experience and provide examples.
Complete the worksheets and attach a copy to Google Classroom or complete them in your workbook as instructed by your Teacher
Vision
Vision capabilities vary dramatically between different animal species, depending on where they live and the skills that are important for survival.
The Electromagnetic Spectrum is much more than just Visible light and many animal species are capable of detecting well outside the visible light (colour) spectrum.
Human eyes work best in the daytime and use the visible light spectrum the most. Our colour and depth perception (ability to judge distances) is well developed due to our forward facing eyes. Human eyes are not so great at night and many animals including Cats have much better vision in the dark than us!
This lesson investigates how other animals can use the Infrared, Visible, Ultra Violet and even X-ray parts of the EMS! Some animals also have the ability to detect electrical and magnetic signals which will be explored again in the next lesson on Sound Detection in Animals.
Scattered 'messy' light when it passes through a filter becomes polarised and travels in a more organised pattern that is easier for animals to detect
Many animals memorise light positions and use them to navigate to where they need to go!
ULTRAVIOLET FLOWERS
Many animals have the ability to see visible light and Ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet light is useful for enhancing the resolution or difference between two patterns.
Perhaps it may seem to us that flowers are there to decorate nature, but the truth is that they compete with each other in attracting the attention of insects, their pollinators. The colours that we can see in them are irrelevant; what really matters is to catch the interest of insects, and they do not see the same thing as us.
Many flowers that for humans have a smooth colouring hide a striking pattern visible only in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum, something that bees can see.
The left shows how Bees see this flower under UV, the right show the yellow visible light that humans can detect. Note that the image is colour enhanced.
UV helps birds to contrast two objects. Note that the image is colour enhanced
Colour in the daisy as a bee would see it
Colour in this scene as a snake in low light would see it
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