Reindeer Eyes Change Color in Wintertime

There's just so much we don't know about this earth we live on...the magnificent ways nature protects the animals, plants and planet itself.
What man does...let's face it...we don't know if it hinders or helps.

Here's an example of the awesomeness of nature:
The actual eye color of reindeer change to protect their eyes in winter....the color goes from yellow-gold to a noticeable blue when the dark months of winter approach. It is also said to give them and advantage in spotting predators.

How cool is that:

It’s because of changes in a light-reflecting tissue layer behind the retina, according to Science. “This structure, called the tapetum lucidum (Latin for ‘bright tapestry’), gives the eye’s light-sensitive neurons a second chance to detect scarce photons in low-light conditions. (The layer also produces the ‘eye shine’ that can make animal eyes appear to glow in the dark.)” In other words, it makes the eyes extremely sensitive to light.
~~~~~~
“This is the first time a color change of this kind in the eye has been shown in mammals,” he added.

www.wunderground.com...

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


It's uber cool. I read that recently ( Reindeer eyes ) and was amazed by what we think we know, but really don't have a clue. I wonder if a lot of things have been forgotten though, because I imagine peoples who lived near reindeer would have known that at some time in history.

I wish we would all listen more and slow down, sometimes. Thanks for reminding me!

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe

the magnificent ways nature protects the animals, plants and planet itself.

So true.
There is a breed of snake that got stranded on an island.
It was hard for them to prosper because food was only available at certain times.

Either the snake or nature turned the pigment of the snake black in order to get more energy from the sun so it could feed more often helping its survival.

Nature truly is amazing.

Is survival part of our DNA??

walleye have this same type of light amplification they see very well in some color ranges and less to none in others

i bet food and predators and the ladies are in the best visual ranges

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


Wow. Makes me wonder - is winter also why Nordic types tend to have blue eyes? ...I'm thinking snow-glare here. Maybe blue eyes are better at dealing with that gawdawful brilliant blinding glare.



EDIT to add: Nope, apparently not. Seems it's still a mystery.

Decades ago, the assumption was that people, over the course of many eons, became blue eyed because they were adapting to conditions as they migrated north. The thinking was that possibly, blue eyes conferred some kind of protection against snow blindness. Even without the finding from the researchers from Copenhagen, this idea was debunked long ago. Brown eyes, because of the melanin, offer much better protection against ultraviolent light. They become even more valuable the higher you climb. Intensity of UV rays increase 4% for every 1000 feet of elevation gain.

Since individuals pushing north were confronted with darker skies and longer nights, it was considered possible that blue eyes offered better eyesight in these conditions. This has been disproved also. Most scientists consider the mutation to be nothing more than a random shuffle. Our human genome is always trying out different variations, looking for better traits. But if brown eyes offer better protection, why didn't blue eyes mutate back to brown ?

Thank you for this post..

I am constantly amazed at the world around us, this is just one more thing to be amazed at..

GREAT POST!!!!!

I'm pretty sure that the eye color change has something to do with Santa.

It is actually interesting about the seasonal eye color change in Reindeer. I suppose this is common knowledge of the Saami.

reply to post by soficrow


Even though it is said that the origin of eye color is random, I do not believe there was not some reason for different eye colors in humans. I just don't think they have found it yet. They also say eye colors don't change, which is a misconception at it's finest. My eye color is effected by what I eat and the change happens within an hour. My eyes are green so maybe minerals effect them more than brown eyes.

I also don't think that different eye colors see things the same. We are taught that green is green, aqua is aqua, red is red, etc.... So is the person with green eyes seeing things the same as those with brown eyes? Not necessarily, just because we have been conditioned to give the same response for the color does in no way mean that we are seeing it the same.

I wonder if the reindeer see colors differently when their eye colors change.

rickymouse
reply to post by soficrow

 

I also don't think that different eye colors see things the same. We are taught that green is green, aqua is aqua, red is red, etc.... So is the person with green eyes seeing things the same as those with brown eyes? Not necessarily, just because we have been conditioned to give the same response for the color does in no way mean that we are seeing it the same.

We see through our pupils, which are all black because they are holes, and there is no light shining out from the inside. We do not see through our irises, which are where the color is.

ETA: Trust me, I know. I have a blue eye and a green eye.

soulwaxer

reply to post by rickymouse


You might be right. ...How would you design an experiment to find out? I'm thinking give a few people a color swatch to match, and some pigments to mix. See what they use to get their color match. Also btw - my eyes are blue but turn green when I get angry... Whatever that might mean.

reply to post by soficrow


I have blue eyes, but they sometimes change colors depending on what i wear.

Some dogs have blue eyes...is it mostly the northern breeds?
Our old Siberian had blue eyes.
Our current Siberian has one eye half brown/half blue...and the other brown eye has a blue section, maybe a fifth of the eye.

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


This adds to the recent scientific finding that one out of every million reindeer has its nose turn red somtime in December. This phenomena, in which the nose actually glows - found to be a florescence effect of eating various rare but findable-by-scent winter flora in the arctic regions - has only been seen once in nature as a reindeer ran, or, in the words of one witness, "flew", after a mule. But reserch indicates that the mule assured the reindeer with its nose so red "There won't mulehide thigh play tonight".

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


Turns out...some artic dwelling reindeer really do have a rosy nose glow
especially as they play "reindeer games"



Researchers uncovered a small group of reindeer native
to the Arctic regions in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Russia
and Scandinavia who actually do have a distinct
red coloring in their noses

reply to post by soulwaxer


It would seem that since eye color is the result of reflection of the spectrum which makes up the eye color, that less or more of that spectrum would be available to the pupil. The brain interprets this signal and compares it to what we know which in turn is created by the interpretations of others. To me it seems like it has to make a difference.

If you were to have one eye open and look at some colors that you had not seen with the other eye, could you pick out the colors with the other eye in a lineup? It would be almost impossible to tell for sure because your brain has lived with those different color eyes all your life. The brain may convert the information because of your knowledge to a color that both eyes recognize as the same. You may be seeing differently with both eyes but the brain interprets the input of both eyes differently resulting in the same color. People with one color wouldn't probably have that ability.

It is like looking at the moon when you are really tired, there can be three overlapping moons. In actuality there are possibly three moons and our knowledge of there only being one moon translates and defines the picture to make it look like one clear moon instead of a blur. That comes under spacial recognition in the brain. Someone who can't do this translation properly may never even know that this is not normal. They wouldn't be able to see the man in the moon. The eyes are by far just a small part of vision. People always tend to think their vision being blurred is a problem with the eyes. They go to the eye doctors and get glasses, they think they are seeing better when it was not the eyes in the first place that was the problem. Their belief makes them think they are seeing better, when they lose that belief they go back and get a new pair of glasses and start all over, accepting seeing a little better as reality. Refraining from eating foods that dampen the function of the occipital lobe would be a better solution many times. I have improved my eyesight but because of so many changes over the last four years, I can't pin it to a few changes that did it. My eyes seem to focus a lot faster now too, a direct result of eliminating something that was dampening their ability to focus. My tears work properly now also, the age related decline of tears lubricating and healing the eyes is a farce, certain minerals are needed for tears, people avoid foods with sulfur compounds in them because they may give them smelly gas but the sulfur is needed for the eyes. The gas is not really a result of sulfur foods, it is from certain microbes being over or under populated in the gut.

Sorry for getting so off topic OP.

reply to post by soficrow


But we are conditioned through society to see the colors as the same. The translation is done in the brain. This has been done since we were very young. Comparing two greens to match will not do it. It is possible that what I see as green is not the same as you see as green, but we will both agree it is green. I don't think it would be possible to test this possible hypothesis of mine.

I know people in other cultures will not say green is green, they have another word for green and our word is not the right word for them. If we train them the word for green, they will parrot it as what they see.

I could see red as green and green as red and always still interpret the color as others do..I will learn to call blood red. What we see does not actually relate to what we think we see, but as long as everyone thinks we are seeing the same thing, who cares. Maybe that is why different people like different colors.

what if we have been looking at this all wrong?
what if its the weather that changes when the reigndeers' eyes change color?

Well OP, You may find this interesting. Here in the Southern Hemisphere all animal eyes reflect red with a camera flash. A few Christmases ago I Went to a deer park in Sweden. Every animals Eye reflected blue. Deer, Bison,Wolves,lynx, all species right across the board. You will never see this in the Southern Hemisphere. Wish I could upload some of my photography to show you.

reply to post by soulwaxer


We see with our brains most of all.
Newborns have perfectly good eyes yet have little depth perception or ability to discern colors. They cannot differentiate between persons or objects as well.
It's the same reason aboriginals can look at the ground and tell you a lion walked there 3 weeks ago and all you see is dirt.

Conditions in the artic make finding food in winter much more difficult forcing reindeer to forage in areas they would avoid if possible. Nature has conferred a small advantage on them by allowing their eye color to change. It's truly beautiful how nature works these things out.

Rickymouse: I had wondered the same thing before - whether we actually "see" colors the same way as others. It is possible what appears as red to me is green to you or vice versa.