Friday, January 28, 2022

Goat notes and Donkey tales No. 1 Why do goats have such weird eyes?


Hi, I'm Gini and I live on a little patch of land I call The Farmlette. I hope you will enjoy stopping by to see what's happening with me and my critters. 


                Why do goats have such strange eyes?

Beanie, one of my Nigerian Dwarf goats. 


The goat's horizontal, rectangular pupils seem alien compared to the round pupils of people and dogs and the vertical slits of cats.

    The determining factor seems to be whether the animal is the hunter or the hunted...predator or grazing prey.“ For species that are active both night and day, like domestic cats, slit pupils provide the dynamic range needed to help them see in dim light yet not get blinded by the midday sun,” lead author Martin Banks of UC Berkeley 
                      
   Eyes located more on the side of the head produce a much wider field of vision than eyes like our own. 
    The shape of the pupils also allows them to take in more light. Meanwhile, they aren't absorbing as much light from above their heads, which keeps the sun from bleaching out their view of the grass around them. 
     This extensive peripheral vision lets them watch out for predators, and helps them see the entire terrain around them when they must plot an escape.
      
     Banks confirmed that grazing animals rotate their eyes when they bow their heads down to graze, effectively keeping their eye slits nearly parallel to the ground at all times — no matter the position of their heads. 
        
   They can rotate more than 50 degrees per eye, the researchers say, which is 10 times that of the human eye. This allows the grazers to maintain a preys'-eye-view of the world even when chowing down.
                 

              Weird or not, I love those eyes  
               and the goats that have them! 

            

                      


-------------------------------------------------------------
Here’s why goats have those freaky eyes
 By Rachel Feltman More info here
Why Do Goats Have Such Weird Eyes?
BY MATT SONIAK  More info here





1 comment:

  1. Wow! How informative, Gini! I didn't know this about their eyes. Absolutely loved the pictures! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete