Turns out, vertical slit pupils are ideal for this job. Although domestic dogs have round pupils, smaller canine species like red foxes have vertical pupils. That means they need to estimate the distance to their food accurately. These predators hide patiently, and then strike suddenly. And like cats, the vast majority of ambush hunters also have vertical pupils. Follow Rita on Facebook.Cats are ambush predators. To view additional illustrations and Rita’s books in progress, visit Rita’s website. Works in progress: H2O Rides the Water Cycle , The Flying Artist, and Rose Colored. Rita’s newest book, Making Marks on the World: A Storybook for Left- and Right-Handed Coloring, is available for purchase here. Rita has also written and illustrated two eBooks, Jackson’s History Adventure and Jackson’s Aviation Adventure, in the Jackson’s Adventure series.For orangutan facts and images and to purchase the book (also available as an ebook), visit. Rita Goldner is the author and illustrator of the children’s picture book, Orangutan: A Day in the Rainforest Canopy. Meanwhile, we can’t forget that “it’s a jungle out there,” and while we’re calmly grazing, we must keep our 360-degree lookout for predators on the business side, like unprofessional agents, vanity publishers, events or people that diminish our confidence, and even time-stealers and momentum disruptors. With the forward-facing binocular ones, we can focus on our target: our creative goals and literary agenda. So I guess the metaphor would be that we are required to have both sets of eyes. We have a unique position among entrepreneurs in that we make a product with the creative side of our brains, then market and sell it with the business side of our brains. In the midst of all this scientific jargon, I hope we can extract a nugget of wisdom for authors. They have such good peripheral vision that they can see behind themselves. Grazing prey, on the other hand, need to see who’s approaching from all around, so they have sideways-facing eyes. Predators need 3-D vision, to focus on the animal they are either chasing or pouncing on, so they have forward-facing eyes with overlapping fields of vision. The placement of eyes on the head is also a predator-prey adaptation. The really cool part is that when the animals lower their heads to graze, the pupils rotate to remain horizontal! Since their pupils are parallel to the ground, these animals can see predators running in from all sides. They let in light fore and aft, while blocking glaring overhead light. Prey animals, like sheep, deer, and horses, have horizontal pupils, shaped like a letter-slot on your front door. Larger predators like lions and tigers have round pupils because they don’t need that much depth-of-field accuracy they just chase down their dinner and take it with brute force. This is especially important for small predators like your house cat and this pictured fox, because they need to sneak up and surprise their quarry. Secondly, the vertical shape is better for judging distance, based on clues from the blur of a moving prey. Therefore it gives the eye a wider choice in how much light to let in or block, which is great for day and night hunting. First, the slit shape allows for a much greater range in muscular contracting and expanding than a round pupil. Small predators that must stalk and ambush prey have vertical slits for two important reasons. Some of their adaptations, like claws for catching vs hooves for running away, are pretty obvious – eyes, not so much.Ī study conducted by scientists from the University of California in Berkeley and Dunham University in Britain has observed differences in pupil shape. I’m intrigued by the complex ways predators and prey animals evolve to better suit their hunter or hunted status. Since I’m an avowed animal-lover, I read voraciously about their behavior, evolutionary traits, etc. For this post, I’m starting with a literal discussion of eyes: their pupil shapes and position on the head. As authors, we often use eyes as a metaphor for something else, like insight, perception, or the ability to foretell.
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