29 Unique Animals With Big Eyes To Watch Out For
Animals are some of the most beautiful creatures on the planet earth. But there are some animals whose eyes catch a lot of attention because they are so big. These animals with incredible eyes say a lot about them. I have covered the most incredible animals with big eyes on this list.
I find it very interesting that there are so many creatures in the world and each has its own characteristics and appearance. Whenever I find the time I watch Animal Planet or Nat Geo Wild and I see those presenters holding these amazing creatures in their hands. I find it so amazing. I also wish to hold them.
Let’s see the
Animals With Big Eyes
1.Giant Ostracod
These are so cute with big eyes. They live at the depth of around 4000 ft below sea level. Even the lights could not pass through at such depth. These species are also called seed shrimp.
They are only 2.5 centimeters long and found in the North Atlantic ocean. Their antennae help them in swimming. They are orange-colored invertebrates.
Giant Ostracod mostly eat small fishes. When in groups they can attack a creature even bigger than them. It is also called Gigantocypris.
2.Cystisoma
It looks like an insect and lives in the ocean. The species has one pair of eyes and the body is transparent which helps it to hide in the ocean. They can be up to 7 inches long.
3.Common Octopus
They have eight arms each around a meter long and have one of the biggest eyes. It changes its color according to the surrounding. They have three hearts.
4.Four-Eyed Fish
Four-eyed fish are found in Southern Mexico and South America. The strange thing is they can see above and below the water at the same time and therefore in spite of having only two eyes they are called four-eyed fish.
They have two pupils in each eye and up to 32 cm long. They are very alert all the time and eat mostly small insects and small fishes.
Their upper half of the eye helps them in air vision and the lower half of the eye helps to see underwater. Four-eyed fish likes to be on the surface of the water most of the time.
5.Purple Spot Mantis Shrimp
Also called Gondodactylus Smithii, this species is known for its polarization vision. They are 9 to 85mm long and mostly eat crabs. It has around 12-15 visual pigments which is a lot compared to humans who have only three.
Both the eyes move independent to each other.
6.Pygmy Marmoset
This 100 grams monkey is one of the smallest monkeys on earth. It is found in the Amazon Basin in South America. They are only 5 inches long. If you want to keep it as a pet it needs to be handled with so much patience and care. They are not known to be very friendly and can sometimes bite their caregiver.
Their tails are long up to 9-10 inches. The pygmy marmoset is fondly called pocket monkeys because of their tiny size. They are known to live for 12 years. Pygmy marmoset gets bored very easily so they want to do something or the other so if you want to keep them as a pet it would be very difficult to entertain them all the time.
These monkeys are known as finger monkeys also and can jump up to 16-17 feet. They like to eat tree gum, insects and known to be good communicators.
7.Dragonfly
Dragonflies are insects with big eyes. Humans see 200 images per second whereas dragonflies have 360-degree vision. They have two big compound eyes with 30000 lenses in each eye which leads to their clear vision.
Common Clubtail is a type of dragonfly with transparent wings. It eats small insects.
8.Tarsier
Tarsier is also very small in size, only 4 inches long primate with giant eyes. In fact, it is a mammal with the biggest eyes if you compare it with respect to its body size and even bigger than its brain. It belongs to the Tarsiidae family.
It is not recommended to keep them as pets because they can spread worms. Tarsier is very suicidal in nature so even they are put in a cage they can bang their head on the cage. They are mostly found in South Asian islands.
Bohol Tarsier is considered to be the smallest primate. It is only 4 inches long. They can jump up to 18-20 feet. Owls and snakes like to eat them so they hide in holes.
Horsfield’s Tarsier has a very long tail up to 224mm in length and found in Borneo, an Asian island. Also called Western Tarsier, there are two grooming claws on each foot of this tarsier. This nocturnal species uses sound to find its prey.
Tarsier has very flexible necks and this helps them to find prey and keep themselves away from predators. They like to eat insects. Like owls, they are nocturnal creatures and that is the reason they have big eyes like an owl. They like to sleep on the tree during the day.
9.Chameleon
These big-eyed reptiles live in the rainforest or desert. Chameleons are known for changing their skin color. They vary in size from 15mm to even 27 inches. They have 360° vision.
Each eye can focus on a separate object but it can also change to a monocular vision and can see the same object from both eyes.
Chameleons can even see in ultraviolet light. It mostly eat smaller insects but bigger chameleons can even hunt birds.
10.Camel
Camels have big eyes and long eye lashes that help them protect their eyes from sand. They have three eyelids.
11.Stalk Eyed Fly
Found mostly in Africa Stalk Eyed Fly has projections on either side of the head like antennae. Males usually have longer eyestalks. They are around 1 cm in length and eat decaying plants and animals.
12.Zebra Back Spider
It is a black-white color creature that feeds on small spiders. These are usually 5mm to 9mm long with 8 eyes, two in front and six on the sides.
13.Telescope Eye
This goldfish is known for its big eyes. Some other variants of this fish are white telescope, black moor, panda telescope, all have big eyes.
14.Ogre Faced Spiders
Also known as Deinopis, Ogre-faced spiders have big eyes and their webs can be stretched twice the relaxed size to catch their prey. They can see clearly at night because of their very good vision. There are non-venomous.
They are usually 1-3 inches long. The strangest thing about these spiders is even without ears they can hear their prey. These spiders are often referred to as net casting spiders as they form web-like nets. Because of their strong senses, they know about prey even if it is six feet away.
15.Reindeer
Reindeer have a great vision and can see even in ultraviolet light. Their eye color is gold in summer and they change it to blue in winter to get a better vision in the Arctic.
16.Paraphromina
Paraphromina’s eyes take almost 50 percent of its body. The body is only around 0.6 inches long. Since they are tiny it is very difficult to catch them. The big eyes help them to look for prey and predators as well. They live at the depth of around 300 meters in the ocean.
17.Trilobites
These are extinct creatures found 252 million years ago. Some of the trilobites lived in water and others on land. The biggest known trilobites weighed around 4.6kg and were 18 inches long.
They had compound eyes. The lenses were made of calcite and some trilobites had only one lens and while others had a thousand lenses. Their scientific name is Trilobita.
18.Syphnx Cat
Sphynx cat does not have fur on its body. They are very sociable and one of the friendliest cat breeds. Their health span is from 10-14 years. You have to be very careful of the cat’s hygiene because they sometimes stink so a weekly bath with warm water is recommended.
You don’t have to be around them all the time, they can be left alone for a couple of hours. Their body temperature is warmer than other cats. Like all the other cats they need attention.
Since they are friendly, they will adjust well with other pets like dogs or any other pet. They need to be fed well as they are agile and burn a lot of calories. They can eat normal food like chicken, eggs, fruits, potatoes, milk.
Don’t expose them to too much sun as they don’t have fur.In winters they should be rather kept home.
19.Slow Ioris
They also have large eyes and feeds on small birds, nectar, insects, and fruits. Since they are nocturnal animals it is very difficult to keep them as a pet.
20.Uroplatus Phantasticus
It is also called Leaf Tailed Gecko and found in the East African country Madagascar. Their pupils can become bigger at night and can see colors. They don’t have eyelids so they lick their eyes all the time to clean them but their vision is 350 times better than humans.
They like insects and snails. Don’t touch them otherwise they bite. Leaf Tailed Gecko loses their tail easily when touched but they grow it back after a few months. It opens its jaws very wide to scare the predators and changes color as per surrounding. They are not poisonous.
It can be up to 24 inches long.
Read: Can You Keep Raven As A Pet?
21.Ostrich
It is the largest bird in the world with one of the biggest eyes measuring 2 inches in diameter, even bigger than its brain. They feed on grass, fruits, and shrubs.
22.Male Striped Horsefly
They have big eyes at the top of the head. The large ommatidia which is very sensitive to ultraviolet light helps it to find female horsefly.
23.Owls
Owls have really big eyes and this helps them to see clearly at night even if there is dim light. But they cannot move their eyeballs but gets binocular vision.
The great horned owl has the biggest eyes but is color blind. They communicate very well. The life span of owls is 25 years on average. Owls ears have asymmetrical structure and this helps them to know where the sound is coming from.
24.Cock Eyed Squid
They have one of the largest eyes but the left eye is twice the size of the right eye. The right eye is yellow-green in color and the left eye is blue. It keeps a check on prey using the right eye.
25.Vampire Squid
Vampire Squid can be up to one foot long with big eyes that helped them to see even at 2500 feet below sea level. It is a mixture of squid and octopus with eight arms.
Read:14 Strange Mammals
26.Brownsnout Spookfish
This slender fish has cylindrical-shaped big eyes. It uses its eyes as a mirror and as a lens too. It is found in both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.
27.Frog
The big eyes help them with an almost 360 degrees view. It helps them in finding prey and also be careful of the predators. They have very good night vision and can see colors.
The most interesting thing is they can hear in water and in air. Isthmohyla is a rare frog found in Costa Rica.
The red eyed tree frog looks cute and has large bright red eyes and a green body.
28.Purple Sea Urchin
This deep purple-colored species lives at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. They don’t have eyes but they use their entire body as a big compound eye.
29.Colossal Squid
This is the animal with the biggest eyes in the animal kingdom with a diameter of around 12-16 inches. Their eyes radiate in the dark. It is the heaviest squid species and weighs around 495 kilograms. In terms of size, it is the second-largest squid after Giant Squid.
They like to eat big fishes especially Antarctic toothfish. It is mostly found in Southern Ocean.
Few other animals with big eyes are dogs, rabbits, lizards, acanthodes (an extinct fish).
A microbe that is not an animal but has an eye like a camera that uses a single lens is bacteria.
What do you think of these animals with big eyes? Which one did you like the most?
I would love your opinion.
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