Can Animals See Colours We Can't?

Imagine looking at a flower and seeing something completely different from the person standing beside you.

To you, its petals might look yellow. But to a bee, the same flower may contain patterns, markings and contrasts that are completely invisible to human eyes.

That sounds almost like a superpower, but it happens because not every animal sees colour the way we do.

Some animals see fewer colours than humans. Others can detect types of light that we cannot see at all.

So what does the world look like through an animal's eyes?

How Do We See Colour?

Light comes in different wavelengths. Human eyes can detect only a small range of them, known as visible light.

Inside the retina at the back of your eye are special light-sensitive cells called cones. Most people have three types of cone cells that respond most strongly to different ranges of wavelengths.

Together, they allow our brains to distinguish millions of colour combinations.

But visible light is only a tiny part of something much bigger called the electromagnetic spectrum.

Beyond the colours we can see are wavelengths that are invisible to us, including ultraviolet and infrared.

Some animals have found ways to detect parts of this hidden world.

Bees Can See Ultraviolet

A flower might look fairly ordinary to you, but a bee can receive very different information from it.

Bees can detect ultraviolet light, or UV, which humans cannot see.

Many flowers have ultraviolet patterns on their petals. Some form lines or rings leading towards the centre of the flower, where nectar and pollen can be found.

To us, those markings are invisible.

To a bee, they can act a little like landing signs pointing towards a restaurant.

Interestingly, bees don't see exactly the same range of colours that we do. They are very good at detecting ultraviolet, blue and green wavelengths, but they don't perceive red in the same way humans do.

Their colourful world isn't simply a brighter version of ours. It's a different version.

Birds Can Have an Extra Colour Channel

Many birds have even more complex colour vision.

Humans generally have three types of colour-sensitive cone cells. Many birds have four.

This is called tetrachromatic vision.

For many bird species, that extra visual channel includes sensitivity to ultraviolet light.

A bird that looks fairly plain to us may therefore look very different to another bird. Feathers can reflect ultraviolet light in patterns that humans simply cannot detect.

This hidden colouring can help birds recognise members of their own species and may play a role in choosing mates.

So two birds that appear almost identical to you might look noticeably different to each other.

Reindeer See Something We Can't

Living in the Arctic presents an unusual visual challenge.

Snow reflects lots of ultraviolet light, and reindeer are able to detect UV wavelengths that humans cannot.

That may help important objects stand out against a snowy landscape. Things such as urine, vegetation and the fur of predators can absorb or reflect ultraviolet light differently from the surrounding snow.

A landscape that looks mostly white to us may therefore contain useful contrasts for a reindeer.

Their vision is adapted to the world in which they need to survive.

What About Snakes and Infrared?

Some snakes can detect something even stranger.

Pit vipers, pythons and some boas have specialised organs that can detect infrared radiation associated with heat.

This isn't colour vision in the ordinary sense, and snakes aren't simply seeing a new rainbow colour called "infrared". Instead, these heat-sensitive organs provide information that helps them detect warm objects.

A warm mouse can stand out against cooler surroundings, even in darkness.

The snake's brain combines information from its eyes and heat-sensitive organs to build a useful picture of its surroundings.

It's another reminder that an animal doesn't need to experience the world the same way we do.

Do Dogs See Only in Black and White?

This is a famous myth.

Dogs can see colour, but their colour vision is more limited than ours.

Humans usually have three types of colour-sensitive cones, while dogs have two. Dogs are particularly good at distinguishing blues and yellows, but reds and greens are harder for them to separate.

A bright red toy lying on green grass might stand out dramatically to you but look much less colourful to a dog.

That doesn't mean dogs have poor vision overall. Colour is only one part of seeing, and different animals prioritise different visual abilities.

The Champion of Complicated Eyes

Then there are mantis shrimps.

These colourful marine crustaceans have extraordinarily complex eyes containing many types of photoreceptors. Some species have around a dozen or more receptor types involved in detecting different wavelengths and properties of light.

They can detect ultraviolet light and something called polarised light, which humans cannot normally see.

However, having more receptor types doesn't necessarily mean a mantis shrimp sees millions more colours than we do. Research suggests its visual system processes colour differently from ours.

Its eyes are extraordinary, but its experience of colour remains difficult for humans to imagine.

Imagine a Secret Pattern

Here's a simple way to think about animal colour vision.

Imagine someone gives you a page covered in blue and yellow shapes.

That's everything you can see.

Then another person puts on a special pair of glasses and suddenly discovers bright patterns hidden between those shapes.

The patterns were there all along. Your eyes simply weren't equipped to detect them.

That's a little like ultraviolet vision.

When a bee looks at a flower, it isn't imagining markings that aren't there. The flower really is reflecting wavelengths of light that carry those patterns.

We just can't see them.

Animal What can it detect? How is it different from us?

👤 Humans Red, green and blue ranges Our familiar colour world

🐝 Bees Ultraviolet, blue and green Can see UV patterns on flowers, but not red as we do

🐦 Many birds Human-visible colours plus ultraviolet May see feather markings invisible to us

🦌 Reindeer Visible light plus ultraviolet Can spot UV contrasts in snowy landscapes

🐕 Dogs Mainly blues and yellows See fewer colour differences than humans

🐍 Some snakes Visible light plus infrared heat detection Can detect warm animals even in darkness

🦐 Mantis shrimp Many wavelengths plus polarised light Has an unusually complex visual system

There Is More Colour Around Us Than We Can See

Humans sometimes talk about the world as though what we see is exactly what the world looks like.

But every animal experiences its surroundings through the senses it has evolved.

A bee may find ultraviolet guides on a flower. A bird may notice markings in another bird's feathers that are invisible to us. A reindeer can detect ultraviolet contrasts across snowy ground. A snake can sense the infrared radiation coming from warm prey.

Even our own colour vision is simply one biological solution to understanding light.

So, can animals see colours we can't?

Absolutely.

The world around us contains information our eyes never detect.

We may be looking at the same flower, feather or snowy landscape as another animal, but that doesn't mean we're seeing the same world.

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