Red-eye on animals

[marmaduke]

Why do other animals not get red-eye but green-eye, or blue-eye, when taking photos of them or shining a light in their eyes?

[Noweia]

There is a reflective layer on the back of the eye in animals, which reflects light back through the eye and helps the animal see at night. This layer is called the tapetum lucidum and appears a different colour depending on the animal (and in dogs, the colour varies with breed as well).

In sheep the tapetum lucidum is a metallic blue-green, so reflected light appears to be this colour. In dogs the colour is closer to yellow, in cats it is green.

The reason we get red-eye is because we do not have a tapetum lucidum, and the light shone into our eyes, eg when a photo is being taken, reflects directly off the retina (which has lots of blood vessels, so the reflected light appears red).

Try a google image search for 'tapetum lucidum' and see what you get!

[londondave]

this is how cats yes was invented along the motorway.

[londondave]

i mea cats eyes lol. those reflective things in the middle of the road

[woofgang]

I have a weimaraner and she gets red eye...but then weimaraners are sure that they are human

[Noweia]

Well, the tapetum lucidum doesn't cover the entire retina, so animals must be able to get a degree of red-eye too! :)