Can wolves see well at night?
Wolves are crepuscular animals, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk. Their vision is well-adapted to low-light conditions, but they cannot see in complete darkness. Wolves have a layer of cells called the tapetum lucidum behind their retinas that helps reflect light and enhance their night vision. They also have more rod cells in their retinas than humans do, which allows them to detect and resolve moving objects quickly and to recognize familiar sounds from far away. Despite this, wolves can only see around 20% as well as humans do during the day. Wolves use their enhanced senses of hearing and smell to compensate for their relatively poor eyesight at night. Unlike cats, whose pupils can open extremely wide in darkness, a wolf's eyes remain largely unaffected in darkness: dilated only slightly more than during the day and not showing the distinct vertical slit common to many nocturnal species.