11 Animals With The Coolest-Looking Eyes On The Planet
1. Sclater's lemur
You may have thought humans were the only primates with blue eyes, but the Sclater's lemur begs to differ. Found in Madagascar, males and females often have different-color fur, but both can have blue eyes.
2. Jumping spider
Unlike the rest of their eight-legged brethren, jumping spiders don't rely on webs to ensnare their prey. These four-eyed spiders have two smaller eyes that sense moving insects and two larger eyes that focus on prey before attacking. These eyes offer an almost 360 degree field of vision.
3. Sonoran desert toad
At 7 inches long, these greenish-grey guys are the giants of the toad world. While their eyes are big and beautiful, too, beware - these toads are poisonous!
4. Robber fly
The glowing eyes of the robber fly are straight out of a science fiction movie. A predator of flying insects, robber flies also have a pointy beak that injects paralyzing chemicals into prey. Their eyes contain thousands of lenses, and they can even acquire prey mid-flight.
5. Mantis shrimp
Humans have three photoreceptors that help us see; the mantis shrimp has as many as 16. They are the only animals who can visualize polarized light, or light waves moving in a circular motion.
6. Goat
The goat's rectangular pupil can be explained by a simple evolutionary fact: They're the hunted, not the hunter. This pupil shape increases the goat's depth perception as well as his peripheral vision - all the better to spot predators with.
7. Barreleye fish
You've heard of eyes in the back of your head. Well, the barreleye fish has eyes on top of his head. The large green peepers are visible through his see-through head and can move upward to sense potential danger as well as look straight ahead.
8. Ostrich
The eyes of an ostrich are the very definition of big and beautiful. These brown beauties can measure 2 inches across, surpassing the eye diameter of giraffes, elephants, and all other land animals for that matter.
9. Leopard gecko
These fearless predators feast on scorpions, spiders and such, and can be found in deserts throughout Pakistan, Iran and Iraq. Unlike most geckos, these guys can blink. They clean their eyes by licking them.
10. Scallop
The most surprising part about the scallop's eyes is that they exist at all! These eyes are a security system, functioning as light and motion detectors that warn the scallop when a predator is approaching.
11. Tarsier
Each of the tarsier's eyes is the same size as his brain - they have the largest eye-to-body ratio of any mammal. These large peepers allow him to catch prey and avoid predators during his nighttime excursions in his native forests of Borneo, Sumatra and Belitung.