Why do nocturnal animals have eyes that can see very faint light?

Answer 1

Animals that hunt at light are much more ensitive to light than you or I. Even when we see only black, there is still enough light to them to see clearly. These would include cats and owls and skunks and opposums, etc.

Answer 2

because the bigger the pupils the more light that goes into the eyes and the more light that goes into the eyes the better you can see in the dark, its for this reason that if you turn off your light before bed the room is much darker then when you wake up later in the night, your eyes take a few seconds and minutes to adjust to the lack of light by opening your pupils wider.

Answer 3

A lot of animals who are nocturnal are avoiding prey that roam during the day. Many nocturnal animals, including the galago, make up for the difficulties of seeing at night by having highly sensitive senses of smell and hearing. Naturally at night, senses become more acute due to lack of visual sight. Over time, animals eyes have adjusted to the dark, changing their eye chemistry.Some animals use other strategies to get around at night: Many bats use echolocation, in which the animal emits sounds into the environment and the echoes that come back allow it to "see" its surroundings.

Light entering our eyes is projected on the back surface of the eye (called the retina) where it stimulates light-sensitive photoreceptors cells. They must gather enough light to stimulate the photoreceptors. One way to accomplish this is to develop very large eyes. Many nocturnal creatures do have large eyes but there are limits to how large they can be.

There are two types of photoreceptor cells: cones and rods. Cones allow us to see fine details better than rods do, and cones give us color vision, but it takes more light to stimulate cones than rods. At night, there is not enough light to stimulate cones so we get around primarily using our rods-

Many nocturnal animals have a reflective surface (called a tapetum) on the back of the retina, behind the photoreceptors, that bounces light back for another shot at stimulating the photoreceptors. You can see this reflective surface in cats and other animals when you illuminate their eyes at night-it appears to glow.

Answer 4

Most of the time nocturnal animals adapted to 'the night life' due to species competition or just due to the environment. If a species is nocturnal it decreases the chance for heat stress and, often, the air is more humid so there are environmental enhancements to olfactory communications. Add to this that it's a lot harder to be seen by predators at night and the decreased competition with diurnal creatures and you've really got some great reasons to be nocturnal!

Answer 5

Nocturnal vision helps cats for instance find food when its dark out. Owls use it for hunting purposes too, they only hunt at night. Many other animals are nocturnal for this same reason.

Answer 6

Some animals can see in the dark because their eyes have a special stuff which reflect even the smallest beam of light.

Answer 7

Nocturnal means being awake at night. What do you mean by "why"? If you mean, what advantage is there, one advantage is that diurnal animals such as people are asleep at night.

Answer 8

It is becausethey can see clearly in the dark...

Answer 9

They have to have eyes that can see faint light because they come out at night; so they have to be able to see very faint lite to find food.