Some animals have one weird eye trick

December 27, 2024 10:40 PM

An animal's pupil shape can reveal whether they are generally predator or prey and even how tall they are. A prey animal has horizontal pupils to better detect predators but that advantage only works when they are aligned with the horizon. So "When they pitch their head down, their eyes rotate in the head to maintain parallelism with the ground" a study has determined.
posted by Mitheral (3 comments total)

"We went to farms and zoos and observed five lateral-eyed species with horizontally elongated pupils: sheep, goat, horse, white-tailed deer, and moose."

"Quick! Give me another bag of the chow, I... need to make further observations of them feeding".
posted by lucidium at 4:31 AM on December 28 [1 favorite]

brb, got to go give the horses their midday feed and take a gander
posted by BlueHorse at 10:53 AM on December 28 [1 favorite]

“Up high! Down low! Too slow!”
posted by clew at 11:20 AM on December 28