Is it all in the eyes?

[Dartmoor navigator]

Bunnies normally show up as a pair of blue eyes under headtorch light... well they do for me anyway. So as I lamped one tonight (an missed :-( ) I was aware of a really sharp pair of green eyes watching from an adjacent field - I assumed it was a fox.

Does anyone have some good photgraphic examples of 'eyes at night'?

 

[Stuart69]

My Labs eyes reflect back green in the dark. Even a camera flash in daylight makes her look like Zoltan (showing my age a bit there )

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

My Spaniel has green eyes at night too, but my Rottweiler has orange eyes, I am sure my old collie had red.

 

[JAG009]

I thought it was the type of light that determined the colour of eye shine ?

Jason

 

[santaman2000]

So am I to take it that spotlighting is a legal hunting method? I ask because here it's considered a form of poaching except for possums and raccoons.

 

[santaman2000]

I thought it was the type of light that determined the colour of eye shine ?

Jason

You may be right. I've only ever seen red eyes reflected.

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

The light source does have an influence. However, as I said above my two dogs under the same light have different coloured eyes and the bunnies had blue eyes under three different lamps tonight - the fox was green with three different lamps. It has more to do with the make up of the retina I would have thought?????
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WRT Santaman - Lamping rabbits is common place - lamping salmon, on the other hand is most certainly poaching.

 

[Dangerous Dan]

There used to be a demonic collie near us that kept trying to herd cars, first you knew of it was the intense red eyes bearing down on you. Scared the whatsit out of me the first time.

OK I admit it, every time since. I change my route after the third ambush

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

There used to be a demonic collie near us that kept trying to herd cars, first you knew of it was the intense red eyes bearing down on you. Scared the whatsit out of me the first time.

OK I admit it, every time since. I change my route after the third ambush

Were you with the lady that's know as Lou?

 

[WeThePeoplexfbm]

last time i seen a rabbit and put a light on it they showed up as a gold kind of colour


----
Skipp

 

[blacktimberwolf]

My Labs eyes reflect back green in the dark. Even a camera flash in daylight makes her look like Zoltan (showing my age a bit there )

That may not be a good sign, the pupils that remain open in daylight could be an indication of devoloping cataracts, hope I'm wrong ( I usually am ).

 

[Stuart69]

Hopefully you are mate, she's only coming up on three years old. She's due at the vets for a booster jab soon, I'll ask him to check her out.

 

[Bushwhacker]

Fox is an orangey colour. Sheep and cows are green.

 

[WeThePeoplexfbm]

Fox is an orangey colour. Sheep and cows are green.

really? when i shine a light of sheep on my uncles farm they turn up like orangey not green

 

[ged]

One of my dogs has scary, dull red eyes, the other bright green. My old friend Buster had yellow eyes, here is an enhancement of this image taken a few years ago.

In my experience foxes have blue, green or gold eyes. This fellow had extraordinary golden eyes, so we called him Goldeneyes. My favourite had piercing blue eyes, like a couple of little diamonds running towards you. Sadly she and Goldeneyes are both gone now.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

really? when i shine a light of sheep on my uncles farm they turn up like orangey not green

Now, now girls, there is no specific colour for a species, it all depends on the length & angle of the light reflectig off the tapetum lucidum, reflective tissue just behind the retina,, you can see all the colours of the rainbow from a single animal. all depends how his looking at you................that said, if you shine your torch into a field & you see large shiny discs glowing several colours at the same time...............................run.

 

[bojit]

I think it is all down to the moon , when we have a full moon my wifes eyes are a scary red !

Craig.............

 

[blacktimberwolf]

I think it is all down to the moon , when we have a full moon my wifes eyes are a scary red !

Craig.............

I think that's the booze, Mr bojit,.........Have you got your bergen elastic sorted yet ?

 

[ged]

... there is no specific colour for a species...

That seems to match my experience.

it all depends on the length & angle of the light reflectig off the tapetum lucidum, reflective tissue just behind the retina,, you can see all the colours of the rainbow from a single animal. all depends how his looking at you...

That definitely doesn't. Although they do seem to change a little with angle and movement, and the colour of the light I'm using makes some difference, I can still routinely recognize individual animals by the colours of their eyes at night.

 

[Bushwhacker]

Back to examples.
Here's some piscatorial and (little) human eyeshine from our day out yesterday.