Research overview: feline colour vision and the dichromatic cone complement

Cats are not colour-blind, but they see colour differently from humans, and this overview reviews the evidence for feline dichromacy. With two main cone types, cats are thought to perceive a more limited colour range, likely distinguishing blues and greens better than reds, similar in broad terms to red-green colour-deficient humans. Their visual world prioritises brightness and motion over rich colour. Researchers establish this through cone-pigment analysis, electrophysiology, and behavioural colour-discrimination experiments. Why it matters: understanding feline colour vision corrects the myth that cats see only in grey, clarifies how their sensory world differs from ours, and connects to the broader trade-off in which the cat eye is tuned for sensitivity and motion detection in dim light rather than for the fine colour discrimination useful to a diurnal, fruit-finding primate.