Why do cats have vertical pupils?

1. Watch a video with a teacher and answer the questions below.

1. A pupil is
a) the muscular portion of the eye
b) the hollow opening in the middle of the eye
c) the main feature of the eye that allows us to see
d) none of the above

2. Ambush hunters typically have

a) vertically slit pupils
b) round pupils
c) horizontal pupils
d) W-shaped pupils

3. Horizontally-focused vision is enabled by:

a) round pupils
b) horizontal pupils
c) heart-shaped pupils
d) vertical pupils

4. What’s the best way to describe a mantis’s pupil?

a) a round pupil
b) a heart-shaped pupil
c) a W-shaped pupil
d) an optical illusion

5. Round pupils assist in

a) seeing lots of detail
b) providing a wider view
c) sharp, horizontal vision
d) seeing a larger picture in relative detail

6. Since most humans no longer spend time hunting, are round pupils still suited to our needs? Why or
why not, do you think?

7. What do you think might be going on with the eyes of Pallas’s cats and mongooses?

8. Think of the behaviour of any animal (try to think of one not mentioned in the video), and then try
and explain what eye shape you think it would need.

2. Read the transcript of the video and analyse the vocabulary.

Peering into the eyes of different animals, you’ll see some extraordinarily shaped pupils. But why? It
turns out that pupil shape is a powerful indicator of what role an animal plays in its ecosystem. Pupils
mark the hollow opening in the iris, the eye’s band of pigmented muscle. They’re the portholes
through which light enters the eye, where it then strikes the retina and activates light-sensitive cells,
setting the process of vision in motion. Pupils are black because most of the light that enters them is
absorbed. Their size changes in response to brightness, as well as certain drugs and emotional and
mental states— but their basic form varies greatly among species. House cats, for one, are twilight
hunters with vertically elongated pupils. In the dark, these structures expand dramatically, taking in
the available light. When it’s bright, they shrink into slits. In fact, cat pupils are so flexible that their
maximum area is 135 times greater than their minimum area— whereas our pupils only shrink and
expand 15-fold. And because of how the slit pupil takes in light, it creates sharp, vertical contours.
When the cat’s brain processes the visuals from each eye, the small but sharp differences between
them help the cat judge the precise distance of its target. In fact, many other ambush hunters also have
vertically elongated pupils— but mainly those whose eyes are located closer to the ground. This may
be because these pupils are especially useful in perceiving objects at the relative short distances these
animals tend to hunt. The world looks very different from behind the horizontally elongated pupils of
many grazing and browsing animals, like goats. These pupils, situated on either side of the head, let
horizontal bands of light in that give the goat a near-360-degree view and provide it with sharp,
horizontal images. This helps goats detect any disruption to the horizon— alerting them to potential
predators— while still enabling them to see ahead and detect obstacles as they make their escape. In
fact, goats always keep their pupils aligned with the horizon, rotating their eyeballs in their sockets as
they move their heads up and down. Meanwhile, nocturnal geckos have pupils that shrink into slits
studded with pinholes in higher light conditions. Each pinhole projects a separate, sharp image onto
the geckos retina. Scientists think that comparing these different inputs might help the gecko judge
distance without having to move. And while they might have fooled you, mantises and other insects
and crustaceans have “pseudopupils.” These aren’t optical structures; they’re optical illusions
experienced by the observer. Mantises have compound eyes composed of thousands of light-sensing
units. When some are aimed at you, they appear black because they’re absorbing most wavelengths of
incoming light— but there’s no actual opening. So, why do we have round pupils? Elongated pupils
help sharpen certain dimensions of an animal's vision. But scientists think that, for animals like us
with circular pupils, this is a lower priority. Instead of seeing some elements of a scene in extreme
focus, we see a larger picture in relative detail, which enables more general skills of observation. This
may be especially helpful for foragers looking for food, hunters eyeballing and chasing their prey, and
social animals recognizing other faces. As we peer at different pupils, patterns emerge. And yet there
are exceptions. For example, Pallas’s cats and mongooses are both small ambush predators, but the
Pallas’s cat has round pupils and mongooses have goat-like pupils. And we’ve only explored a few
pupil shapes. Other animals have crescent- or heart-shaped pupils. And the cuttlefish has perhaps some
of the most bizarre: their pupils are circular in the dark, but W-shaped in the light. So, what’s going on
here? Well, wouldn’t we all like to know?

3. The diagram shows an eye of a mammal. In the table below add the names of the
structures indicated by the letters.

CHOICES: Aqueous humour; choroid;

conjunctiva; fovea; optic nerve; cornea;
iris; lens; retina; sclera; vitreous humour;
pupil

4. Write the correct term to the definition.

Aqueous humour; Choroid; Conjunctiva; Iris; Fovea; Optic nerve; Blind spot; Cornea;
Sclera; Retina; Vitreous humour; Pupil; Nictitating membrane

1. Fluid that fills the anterior (front) chamber of the eye. ___________
 2. The white of the eye. ___________
3. Area of the retina that lacks rods and cones. ___________
4. Coating that provides nutrients to eye. Becomes the iris in the front of the eye.
___________
5. Layer containing the rods and cones. ___________
6. Jelly-like substance filling the posterior cavity of the eyeball. ___________
7. Heavily pigmented coating that prevents light scattering within the eyeball:
reflects light in nocturnal animals. ___________
8. Coloured structure that controls the size of the pupil. ___________
9. Area of the retina of most detailed vision. ___________
10. Most anterior part of the sclera—the window on to the world. ___________
11. Outer coating of tough, fibrous connective tissue. ___________
12. Aperture of the eye. Where the light enters. ___________
13. The delicate membrane that covers the front of the eyeball. ___________
14. The third eyelid. ___________
15. The nerve that takes nerve impulses from the retina to the brain. ___________

5. Are these statements about the eye true or false? If false give the correct answer.

1. Prey animals like the rabbit have a large area of binocular vision. T/F
2. The rods of the retina function in dim light and do not respond well to colour. T/F
3. The lacrimal glands secrete fluid that washes the outer surface of the eye and keeps it
moist. T/F
4. The conjunctiva is the inner lining of the eyeball. T/F
5. When the eye focuses both the lens and the cornea change in shape. T/F
6. The cones of the retina are more numerous in the region of the eye known as the
fovea. T/F
7. Vitamin E is required in the diet to make the visual pigment found in the cells of the
retina. T/F
8. The size of the pupil changes in different light intensities. T/F
9. The parasympathetic nervous system brings about dilation (expansion)of the pupil.
T/F
10. Nocturnal animals are usually colour-blind. T/F

6. Revealed: why animals’ pupils come in different shapes and sizes (Durham
University)

Wolves and foxes are closely related and share many of the same characteristics. But look at
their eyes – where wolves have rounded pupils like humans, foxes instead have a thin vertical
line. But it isn’t just canines –across the animal kingdom, pupils come in all shapes and sizes.
So why the differences? It’s a question that has long interested scientists working on vision
and optics. In a new study published in the journal Science Advances, colleagues from
Durham, Berkeley and I explain why these pupil shapes have developed. Goats, sheep, horses,
domestic cats, and numerous other animals have pupils which vary from fully circular in faint
light to narrow slits or rectangles in bright light. The established theory for this is that
elongated pupils allow greater control of the amount of light entering the eye. For instance, a
domestic cat can change its pupil area by a factor of 135 from fully dilated to fully
constricted, whereas humans, with a round pupil, can only change area by a factor of 15. This
is particularly useful for animals that are active both day and night, allowing for much better
vision in low light conditions. However, if the only reason for elongated pupils was to control
the amount of light entering the eye, the orientation would not be important: horizontal,
vertical, or diagonal would all offer the same advantages. Instead, the pupils are almost
always horizontal or vertical, which suggests there must be other benefits which explain this
orientation. Pupils fit for every niche. Our work has focused on the visual benefits of vertical
and horizontal pupils in mammals and snakes. One of the most interesting factors we found is
that the orientation of the pupil can be linked to an animal’s ecological niche. This has
been described before, but we went one step further to quantify the relationship. We found
animals with vertically elongated pupils are very likely to be ambush predators which hide
until they strike their prey from relatively close distance. They also tend to have eyes on the
front of their heads. Foxes and domestic cats are clear examples of this. The difference
between foxes and wolves is down to the fact wolves are not ambush predators – instead they
hunt in packs, chasing down their prey. In contrast, horizontally elongated pupils are nearly
always found in grazing animals, which have eyes on the sides of their head. They are also
very likely to be prey animals such as sheep and goats. We produced a computer model of
eyes which simulates how images appear with different pupil shapes, in order to explain how
orientation could benefit different animals. This modelling showed that the vertically
elongated pupils in ambush predators enhances their ability to judge distance accurately
without having to move their head, which could give away their presence to potential prey.
Grazing animals have different problems to deal with. They need to check all around for prey
and they need to flee rapidly in case of attack. Having eyes towards the side of their head
helps them to see nearly all around them. Having a horizontal pupil enhances the amount of
light they can receive in front of and behind them while reducing the amount of light from
above and below. This allows them panoramic vision along the ground to help detect potential
predators as early as possible. The horizontal pupil also enhances the image quality of
horizontal planes and this enhanced view at ground level is also an advantage when running at
speed to escape. So, vertically elongated pupils help ambush predators capture their prey and
horizontally elongated pupils help prey animals avoid their predators. We realised our
hypothesis predicted that shorter animals should have a greater benefit from vertical pupils
than taller ones. So we rechecked the data on animals with frontal eyes and vertical pupils and
found that 82% are what is considered “short” (which we defined as having a shoulder height
of less than 42cm) compared with only 17% of animals with circular pupils. We also realised
that there is a potential problem with the theory for horizontal elongation. If horizontal pupils
are such an advantage to grazing animals, what happens when they bend their head down to
graze? Is the pupil no longer horizontally aligned with the ground? We checked this by
observing animals in both a zoo and on farms. We found that eyes of goats, deer, horses, and
sheep rotate as they bend their head down to eat, keeping the pupil aligned with the ground.
This remarkable eye movement, which is in opposite directions in the two eyes, is known as
cyclovergence. Each eye in these animals rotates by 50 degrees, possibly more (we can only
make the same movement by a few degrees). There are still some unexplained pupils in
nature. For example, mongooses have forward-facing eyes but horizontal pupils, geckos have
huge circular pupils when dilated which reduce down to several discrete pinholes when
constricted and cuttlefish have “W”-shaped pupils. Understanding all these variations is an
interesting challenge for the future.

QUESTIONS:

1
Why do animals have different pupil shapes, and what is the established theory behind this
variation?
2
What are the visual benefits associated with vertical and horizontal pupils in mammals and
snakes?
3
How does the orientation of an animal's pupil relate to its ecological niche, according to the
study?
4
Why do ambush predators like foxes and domestic cats typically have vertically elongated pupils?
5
How do horizontally elongated pupils benefit grazing animals such as sheep and goats?
6
Why do shorter animals benefit more from vertical pupils compared to taller ones, according to
the hypothesis presented in the text?
7
How do animals like goats and horses maintain a horizontal alignment of their pupils when
bending down to graze?

Additional videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViXBQsirTeY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HWVgQdSTDQ