Do animals see the same way we do? Do some animals have better vision than humans? The senses of animals have evolved to give members of the species an optimum chance for survival. Here are a few examples:

Some animals, such as cats, have a reflective surface ( tapetum) on the back of the eye behind the sensory receptors (left image above). When light first enters the eye, some light is detected by the sensory receptors. The light not detected by the sensory receptors continues onto the reflective surface at the back of the eye. This light is then reflected outward toward the sensory receptors, providing a second opportunity for detection. This feature produces two results. First, the outward reflection results in the shining of the cat's ey ...

Different animals have different collective names, which are what groups of the animals are called.

Let's see how many of these you already know; check your answer my clicking the button underneath each photo.





















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That's the longest string of words that Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee who scientists raised as a human and taught sign language in the 1970s, ever signed. He was the subject of Project Nim, an experiment conducted by cognitive scientists at Columbia University to investigate whether chimps can learn language.

After years of exposing Nim to all things human, the researchers concluded that although he did learn to express demands - the desire for an orange, for instance - and knew 125 words, he couldn't fully grasp language, at least as they defined it. Language requires not just vocabulary but also syntax, they argued. "Give orange me," for example, means something different than "give me orange." From a very young age, humans understand that; w ...

The hairy frogfish (Antennarius striatus) is a marine fish with spines resembling strands of hair - and it can change color. This small fish grows up to 22 cm (8.7 in) long, and has a rounded, extensible body. Its large mouth is forwardly extensible, allowing it to swallow prey as large as itself! The coloring of its body is extremely variable because individual fish tend to match their living environments.

Frogfishes have the capacity to change coloration and pigment pattern, taking only a few weeks to adapt. The dominant coloration varies from yellow to brownish-orange, passing through a range of shades, but it can also be green, gray, brown, almost white, or even completely black without any pattern. Body and fins can be marked with roug ...

Not one to be outdone by the dynamic trio of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore of Alvin and the Chipmunks, the least chipmunk (Eutamias Minimus) is the smallest of all chipmunk species (shown above). Least chipmunks range over most of western North America occupying the widest geographic and altitudinal range of any chipmunk. These tiny rodents possess a long, narrow but fairly bushy tail, and have soft, dense fur which is moulted twice a year - the summer coat being brighter in color than the more greyish winter coat. Like other chipmunks, this species has relatively short ears which are covered in short hairs and pouches inside the cheeks which are used to carry food. Interestingly, the female least chipmunk may be slightly larger than the male ...

The aardvark's outsize snout is tailor-made to house a foot-long, sticky tongue that's the perfect tool for extracting termites from their mound nests. Bush-meat hunters are fond of eating aardvarks, but the "antbear" (Orycteropus afer) is still relatively common across sub-Saharan Africa.