Who sees best in the dark?
Some eyes gather far more light than yours. The elephant hawk-moth catches about 74 times more light in each eye cell, while a honey bee catches about 8.9 times less. Pick an animal and turn down the light to see who copes best.
Turn down the light
At this darkness, the picture for an elephant hawk-moth is about 16 times brighter than yours.
The picture shows how much light each eye cell gathers. Real night vision also depends on how long the eye collects light and how the brain adds signals up.
A simulation made from published eye studies. Not what the animal feels.
Which animal sees best in the dark?
Of the animals whose eyes have been studied in full here, the elephant hawk-moth gathers the most light: about 74 times more in each eye cell than you. For sharks and deep-sea lanternfish we only have best guesses; the top one is the Borneo catshark, at about 9.9 times.
Can bees see at night?
Not well. A honey bee's eye cells catch about 8.9 times less light than yours. The nocturnal sweat bee, a bee that flies at night, catches about 26 times more light per eye cell than a honey bee.
Is this what the animal really sees?
It shows one part of night vision: how much light each eye cell catches. Animals also collect light for longer and add signals together in the brain, which this picture leaves out.
More to play
The science behind it: the light-gathering numbers and studies