Ft Collins Sees The Eyes of Nic and Nac

Well it’s back to being a foster parent-Nic & Nak are two Sugar Gliders that have joined out family. In case you don’t know, sugar gliders are marsupials who carry their young in a pouch, and they love to live as adults in anything resembling a pouch. They are well known as coming from the Australian Island of Tasmania, but they live in New Guinea and several other countries.

Great Eyesight Without Glasses

Excellent Night Vision

Faster Than A Speeding Moth In Flight

With Huge eyes on the side of their heads, they look like little Ewoks. The Protruding cutest eyes you will ever see function to provide superior night vision an a large filed of view. They do have 3-D vision but in a smaller filed of vision. There is some disagreement about color vision problems, but they do appear to have good  color vision to detect fruits, flowers, and different types of insects. Previously it was thought the only color they cold see was red. Those protruding eyes allow sugar gliders to nab a moth at night in flight while gliding 200 feet through the air,  missing all the tree branches, and tucking in for a perfect landing on a tree 50 feet above the ground. They have a blood supply under the retina and a tapetum lucidem tissue that serves like a mirror to reflect light back through the retina to increase night vision. They also have a tuft of blood vessels that comes out of the optic nerve into the vitreous fluid inside the eye. These blood vessels are not permeable (they do not leak out blood). This is stated to help night vision and the retina is referred to as avascular, or not having blood vessels in he retinal tissue. That menas the blood supplies has to diffuse from the choroid tissue underlying the retina. Why this makes better night vision is a mystery to me.

These Are Really Cool Critters With Eyes You Can’t Help But Marvel At!