Watching lions at night feels markedly different. As the darkness closes in and our own vision is limited to the narrow beam of a spotlight, it’s easy to feel a sense of vulnerability. In stark contrast, lions thrive in the dark. These nocturnal hunters rely on highly specialized adaptations to track prey under the cover of night. Their remarkable ability to see in low light is a testament to nature’s ingenuity—but it comes at a cost during the day, where their vision is less sharp and detailed.

Londolozi Ranger alumna Robyn Morrison explored how leopards see the world. While lions share similarities with their feline cousins, their vision has evolved to suit their primarily nocturnal hunting strategies, making it equally fascinating to explore.

One of the Birmingham Males looks up whilst walking in the darkness. At night a lion is at its most comfortable. A layer of tissue behind the retina of the lion’s eye called the tapetum lucidum reflects light back through the retina allowing these great predators to see very well in low light conditions.

The Tapetum Lucidum: Nature’s Light Amplifier

One of the most striking adaptations in a lion’s eyes is the tapetum lucidum, a reflective layer of tissue at the back of their eyes.

One of the key adaptations that allow lions to see better at night is the tapetum lucidum, a reflective layer of tissue at the back of their eyes. This structure acts as a natural amplifier for light, reflecting it back through the retina to give the eye a second chance to absorb it, improving the lion’s ability to see in low-light conditions.

• Night Vision Advantage: The tapetum lucidum enables lions to make the most of even the faintest light—moonlight, starlight, or the distant glow of headlights. This gives them a significant edge, allowing them to see six to eight times better than humans in low-light conditions.
• Glowing Eyes: This structure also causes the eerie “glow” you might see when shining a spotlight on a lion at night—a hauntingly beautiful reminder of their mastery of darkness.

Large Corneas and Pupils: Designed for Darkness

Lions’ eyes are perfectly designed to gather and focus light, thanks to their large corneas and pupils.  The pupil is the black round opening in the centre of the eye which allows light to pass through to the retina.

• Larger Corneas: The cornea is the eye’s first line of defence and is a transparent part of the eye that covers the eye and pupil. Lions have large corneas relative to their eye size. These help capture more light, an essential feature for navigating and hunting in dim conditions.
• Dilated Pupils: The pupil is the black round opening in the centre of the eye which allows light to pass through to the retina. At night, a lion’s pupils expand dramatically to allow maximum light to reach the retina. This is particularly evident in low-light photographs, where their pupils appear enormous, absorbing every available photon.

These features work together to give lions a powerful advantage during their prime hunting hours: dusk, dawn, and night.

In this low-light photograph, you can see just how big the pupils are allowing a lot more light to reach the retina at the back of the eye.

Rod Cells: Detecting Movement in the Dark

Lions’ retinas are packed with rod cells—photoreceptors specialized for low-light vision.

Lions’ retinas, like many nocturnal predators, are packed with rod cells- photoreceptors specialized for detecting light and crucial for low-light vision. Rod cells are much more sensitive to light than cone cells.

• Rod Cells:  These cells enable lions to detect movement and form rough images, even in near-total darkness. They vastly outnumber cone cells, which are responsible for sharp, colour-rich vision.
• Cone Cells:  While lions can perceive some colour, their vision is more muted than ours, with limited differentiation between reds, greens, and blues.

In humans, the rod-to-cone ratio is around 20:1. In nocturnal animals like lions, it’s closer to 200:1, perfectly suited for hunting under a blanket of stars.

A close-up of the eye of a lioness from the Ntsevu Pride.

Daylight Vision: The Trade-Off

The adaptations that make lions formidable nocturnal hunters come with trade-offs. Their eyes are designed for low-light sensitivity rather than high-contrast detail, which means they suffer from a reduced ability to focus on fine details when exposed to bright light.

• Reduced Clarity: In bright daylight, lions’ vision is less sharp. The dominance of rod cells means their ability to focus on fine details or recognize distant objects is diminished.
• Colourblindness: With fewer cone cells, lions likely see a muted palette of colours and rely more on contrast and movement to identify prey. Their vision is correctly referred to as seen in ‘grey-scale’ as they see shades of blue red and green just not to the same degree as what we see.

Although we do not know exactly what a lion sees this picture captures the idea of what they might see during the day.

These limitations explain why lions prefer to hunt during cooler, dimly lit hours, reserving their energy during the blazing heat of the day. Needless to say, this does not mean that they can’t hunt during the day, but rather conditions are more favourable for them to hunt at night.

The Balance of Vision

Lions’ eyes are a study in compromise: highly sensitive to light at night but less capable of detail and sharpness during the day. Their adaptations reflect the realities of their environment and hunting strategy. While they dominate in the dark, their reduced daylight vision doesn’t hinder them; instead, it aligns perfectly with their activity patterns and survival needs.

But this leaves me pondering: can lions truly see the stripes of a zebra? Or do they rely more on movement and contrast to hunt? Perhaps this is a question for another blog…