Rods and Cones!

So tonight we went on a night hike, it was lovely. We learned all about how the rods and cones in eyes of various animals work.

Nocturnal animals have more rods and less cones, whereas animals during the day have more cones. They even taught us a cute little rhyme thingy.

"Cones are for colors,
Colors are for me!
Rods are for raccoons,
So they can help them see!"

Yup. So rods are used to see motion and shapes, while cones are used to see more colors. Humans have more cones and less rods, which is why we have such bad night vision.

There's also a layer on the back of nocturnal animal's eyes called the Tapetum Lucidum. This is what causes light to bounce off of the animals eyes when lights are shined on them. The colors bounced back can range anywhere on the color spectrum, and different animals have different colors. Hunters use the knowledge of the different colors to identify the different animals when they're hunting during the night.

Rods and cones are really cool and they help us see. I think that's pretty awesome.

EYEBALLS!!!