Difference Between a Sheep eye and Human eye

There are lot of differences between sheep eye and human eye though there are also some similarities. Sheep has a better peripheral vision than human beings though it lacks color vision. Of late there has been a lot of interest shown by scientists in a sheep eye and how its study can help avert some of the common vision problems among human beings. This article will talk about these differences in detail.

It is a difficult task to compare eyes of two different species but there are many differences between sheep eye and human eye that can be easily described. Human eye has fovea which is lacking in sheep eye. Vision cells are deeply concentrated in fovea which is an area of retina. Fovea has only cones that help in providing greater details and human beings use them to focus on a particular object. While human beings cannot see side ways, sheep are better on this count and have a peripheral vision as their eyes are located on the sides of their head. Humans on the other hand have forward facing eyes that give overlapping vision. This is how human beings have a binocular vision. Sheep eye is situated at the top of their head far back than humans which allows them to scan nearby areas when they were feeding. This is not possible in the case of human beings. Though humans have a narrow field of vision, they benefit because of depth perception which is lacking in the case of sheep. Sheep on the other hand, though they get a broader field of vision because of eyes on the side of their heads have lesser depth perception than human beings. However, this is not a major loss for sheep as they do not require depth perception to simply eat grass in front of them. Being a prey, they need sideways perception to run away from predators and this is what they have got.

Differences between Sheep eye and Human eye

While human eye has circular pupil, sheep eye has oval shaped pupil

Sheep eye has tapectum lucidum that is a layer f tissues causing reflection of light. This is lacking in human eye.

Sheep eye is placed sideways on its head whereas humans have forward facing eyes

Human beings have a better depth perception than sheep

Human eye has six muscles for eye movement whereas sheep have only 4 muscles to mover their eyes.