Coyotes may be seen at any time of the day — they are diurnal animals, however for convenience in urban areas they have arranged their daily schedules to avoid human activity, so in cities they are active mostly at night when we are not. They can do this because their eyes have many more rod receptors than the human eye has, so they can see in the dark: they have night-vision.
Coyotes, like dogs and cats, have retinas that are almost entirely composed of rods. They have a superabundance of rods with only few cones. Rods require less light to activate than cones, but they only allow you to see black and white; having lots of rods means great night vision. Humans, on the other hand, have predominantly cones and fewer rods. Cones require a lot of light to be fired up, but they allow color vision in bright daylight and they produce a very sharp vision. Cones do not respond to low light: under low light, humans rely on their lower number of rods. Note that for us, at dawn, dusk and nighttime, everything looks black and white, and not very clear or sharp, and we can’t see far.
Rods have a photosensitive pigment called rhodopsin which is particularly sensitive to low light. This pigment actually breaks down in strong light rendering it ineffective during the day, but at night, and when there is a superabundance of the rods as is the case with coyotes, the pigment is created faster than it breaks down. So these animals, out at night, can see pretty well even though you can’t, but they cannot see as sharply as those of us who use cones in daylight.
In addition to more rods, there is another factor which aids coyotes and other critters in their night vision. Have you ever noticed that if you take a photo of animals at night, their eyes shine? This is because they have a sort of “mirror”, called a tapetum lucidum, beneath their retina. This collects and re-emits light back into the retina, giving the rods a second chance to absorb visual information, enhancing their ability to see clearly in low light conditions.
coyote vision | Coyote Yipps
coyote vision – Coyote Yipps