Since ancient times, the representatives of the feline family have been credited with magical abilities. At different times they were worshiped as gods, accused of having ties with the devil. Their whole life was shrouded in mystery and mysticism. This is due to the amazing abilities of cats, some of which science cannot explain until now.
They are able to fall from a great height and defiantly run away after that on their own feet, find their way home hundreds of kilometers away and see what is inaccessible to humans. Many pet owners have often observed their strange behavior. For example, something can scare a cat when there is no threat visible to the human eye.
And now, biologists Ron Douglas of City University London and Glen Jeffery of University College London (UCL) seem to have unraveled one of the mysteries of many mammals' behavior, namely their ultraviolet vision. …
The human eye is unable to perceive radiation in the UV range (less than 400 nm), since most of it is retained by the lens. Because of this, people cannot see special patterns on flowers that are open to insects, or traces of urine left by rodents.
Susceptibility to UV radiation is fairly common in animals such as birds, bees, butterflies, deep sea crabs and others. However, it was previously thought to be rare in mammals. This list includes some mice, rats, moles, marsupials, and bats. All these animals have UV-sensitive visual pigments on their retinas.
The researchers decided to figure out how things are in other mammals. To do this, they asked to send them dead animals from zoos, shelters and veterinary clinics. As a result, they received a wide variety of eyes at their disposal, namely from 38 species from 25 families.
Scientists have studied all of these visual organs and, in particular, the lenses for the ability to transmit light of different wavelengths. It turned out that many animals do not have an internal UV filter. Among them are cats, dogs, okapis, ferrets and hedgehogs. This means that all of them, unlike humans, must perceive this part of the light spectrum.
Now researchers have to find out to what extent and what species of mammals are able to see UV radiation, as well as what inventions of nature, in addition to a specific visual pigment, help them in this.
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Who knows, maybe soon someone will learn to better understand their beloved cat, or be convinced that she has completely lost her mind.