Chinese Boy Claims To Have Cat-Like Night Vision 171
Oswald McWeany writes "Reports swirling around the Internet are that a boy in China may have cat-like night vision. The boy with eerie blue-eyes was able to fill out a questionnaire in the dark and his eyes reflect like a cat's when a light is shined on them. No reports yet if he marks his territory or is litter box trained."
What are the chances? (Score:4, Informative)
I suspect instead this is just sensationalism and the boy has moderately better vision in low light, without the reflective light collection mechanisms that exist in other animals.
Re:What are the chances? (Score:5, Informative)
Can't capture on camera? (Score:5, Informative)
Despite the claims that his eyes have a retroreflective tapetum lucidum, they can't capture it on camera:
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2115-china-cat-eyed-boy-night-vision.html [lifeslittlemysteries.com]
In the footage, Nong's teacher claims the boy's eyes flash when shined with a flashlight in the dark, but the reporters don't seem to be able to catch the effect on camera. When Nong's eyes are illuminated in the dark, they appear normal. James Reynolds, a pediatric ophthalmologist at State University of New York in Buffalo, noted, "A video could capture [eyeshine] easily, just like in nature films of leopards at night."
I can't seem to take a flash photo of my dog without seeing her eyes shine back at me, so I don't see why they can't capture the effect in this boy if it exists.
I think he's just a blue-eyed chinese boy (which is unusual but not unheard of) with exceptionally good low-light vision, but I don't believe he's developed the same low-light vision adaptation that some animals have.
Re:Old hoax (Score:5, Informative)
I can't find any references to this before January 2012, although maybe the recent news flare-up has drowned the older stuff out. Here's a Snopes thread on it, nobody's calling it a hoax and these guys know their hoaxes:
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=78597 [snopes.com]
Re:Night vision (Score:2, Informative)
Many animals have such a coating, but not all do. Some of them just have bigger eyes, bigger pupils, better night-adapted biochemistry, or some other adaptation.
And they often lack Cone cells, which provides more space for Rod cells. Nightvision is typically not in colour as the more sensitive of the two (Rods and Cones) are Rods.
Re:Blue eyes? (Score:4, Informative)
Paul Muad-Dib is not the God-Emperor. God Emperor was Leto II, Paul's son.
Re:not mutually exclusive (Score:5, Informative)
So your stance is that mother cats who have no particular reason to prefer a litter box over the dirt in the yard (and may have never seen a litter box), teach the kittens to use a litter box... even when there is no litter box to teach them with? How do you explain that kittens acquired just after weaning also use a litter box automatically?
Cats instinctively dislike being messy, wet, and waste odors. Just as all cats instinctively pick at food in a delicate and selective manner and in general take almost every action in a careful deliberate way unless panicked. They all have a COMPULSION to chase and stalk that is triggered by certain movement patterns. I don't know that anyone has made a deliberate study of incubating a kitten from birth and keeping it in isolation from other cats into adulthood but it seems unlikely that every cat from the first evolution of cat to modern day has passed on the exact same training in this regard. Nature is a far simpler solution in this regard than nurture and therefore all else being equal is most likely correct.
That said, I do concede that cats definitely do teach one another even when they aren't mother cats. If you succeed in toilet training one cat in the house it will most likely teach the others. The same with using cat doors and other tricks. In some respects despite not being pack animals cats are actually quite social. I haven't seen dogs teaching one another advanced behaviors like this.
I would even concede there are aspects of waste disposal that are likely trained. Burying behavior seems to be in my observation. Some cats bury in a deep and carefully buried hole, others just toss back a couple pawfuls of dirt. Generally these behaviors seem to be common to cats from the same litter but they aren't static. Some cats change behavior in this respect and that may be because they learn from other cats or just that they discover on their own that they prefer the results of a deep careful bury.
Re:not mutually exclusive (Score:2, Informative)
I trained my male cat to piss in the toilet.
Take a thick piece of cardboard, stick it between the bowl and the toilet seat and cut around to make it a neat fit. Then cut a circle in the center of whats left that just fits a colander, and mount the colander in the middle so it's hovering over the water in the toilet bowl. Fill the colander with kitty litter and leave it there for them to find. If they don't use it, wait a little longer than usual to change their normal litter, so it's gross and they don't want to use it. Once they get used to using the litter box built into the toilet, gradually put a little less litter in the toilet bowl each time you change it, until eventually there isn't any, but they're still going to the toilet. Then take the whole apparatus away.
Saves on litter costs, and lets you brag about how smart your cat is.