Creatures perceive things in various ways; the colour of plants and trees is lost on my dogs that mostly only see greys. Whilst vision is the primary source of much of our human experiences, with dogs it's more about odour (olfactory stimulus).

Which has got me to wonder a bit about the eye as an organ, the variation in animal vision, and our brains interpretation of just what is out there - beyond the body.

Many animals perceive the world differently and see light at wavelengths that we simply cannot detect. Some insects like bees and butterflies can see in the ultraviolet wavelength with many flowers showing 'landing stripes' enabling bees for example to hone in to the nectar and pollens.

Some snakes like vipers and pythons have heat pits - special scales that have evolved to 'see' the infrared thermal radiation. This may help them detect prey, avoid a predator and also probably to find a sunny spot to enable them to sunbathe.

So rare are these deep-water creatures that these measurements come from the only intact eye ever recovered from a specimen.

The eyes may well get larger as the recovered specimen studied was only 8 metres long and scientists believe these depth dwelling predators may grow to at least 14 metres in length.

But because the yellow light waves that hit the banana reflect off it reaching the light sensitive retina at the back of your eye and via your optic nerve sending signals to the brain we interpret what we see as yellow.

Chameleon eyes are almost unique as they swivel independently giving them the ability to see in 2 different directions at the same time.

Colour wise though few match the eagle owl, tree frog or tree viper.

Detecting light from dark (seeing) was an important function 2.9 billion years ago, allowing primitive bacteria like cyanobacteria to navigate towards light to enable photosynthesis. One single Synechocystis cell may be 500 billion times smaller than a human eye but it 'sees' and moves towards the light.

A common example of an Australian animal with eyespots is the hawk moth caterpillar. There are an estimated 850 hawk moth species worldwide, with 65 species residing in Australia. The hawk moth's larvae, also known as a caterpillar, are typically large and colourful and very edible. Hawk moth larvae otherwise have excellent camouflage but when threatened can raise their body displaying 2 huge eyes on the abdomen with the intention of changing what a potential predator sees from an easy meal into possibly an angry and much larger creature.

I personally found a hawk moth caterpillar several months ago on the gravel near my orchard. When I first saw the larvae, it was a magnificent green colour however, after a few days the colour faded to brown and shortly after that wrapped itself to some leaves with spun silk to form a cocoon. Pupation usually takes place on/in the soil or amongst the leaf litter, so if you find a hawk moth on the ground it's best to leave it alone as it may actually be ready to pupate!

Words by Ziggy at Animal Ark

To try to understand what animals see scientists need to look at the rods and cones within the eye. Cones are the photoreceptors that help with the perception of colour. Rods are more sensitive to light and dark, shape and movement.

• Frogs and geckos can see some colours in the dark.
• Falcons can see a 10cm object at a distance of 1.5km.
• Several hawks can also keep an object in focus whilst diving at 160km per hour.
• Dolphins sleep with one eye open.
• Pigeons see millions of hues and have better colour vision than most animals.
• Eagles eyesight is an estimated 4 to 8 times stronger than an average human, although the eyes are roughly the same size - they can spot a rabbit 3.2km away.

Darwin stick insects are native to the forests and woodlands across Northern Australia, including the Kimberly in WA and can often be found up in the tree canopy. Each of the 6 legs is well equipped with hooks to stop them blowing away or dropping off. They have incredibly good camouflage and are very difficult to see and or find! Being herbivores they eat foliage but are actually quite picky with what leaves they like to eat. Twiggy and Leaf, love to eat eucalyptus leaves, but have also been known to eat leptospermum, acacia and melaleuca leaves. Foraging on leaves means that these stick insects don't have to go very far for water. Darwin stick insects have adapted to their surroundings and drink the dew or raindrops right off of the leaves. I remember the first time I saw it, being an animal person, it was really fascinating to watch as they lick or slurp up the moisture.

The females have an unusual way of dispersing their eggs. A Darwin stick insect's eggs look very similar to little seeds pods. The female stick insect lays her eggs one at a time, as one emerges from her abdomen it is automatically loaded into a scoop shaped appendage, she then flicks it away to scatter them around the area. This is an amazing event to watch if you ever get the chance. By strewing the eggs around she increases their distribution (and her genes distribution) and when they hatch, they will hopefully find their own tree and habitat. A young/immature stick insect is called a nymph. We have dozens of eggs from Twiggy and Leaf, which will hopefully hatch in a few months time!

Yes she has eyes as well Twiggy our female stick insect.

Words by Ziggy at Animal Ark