The eye of a Veiled Chameleon, which boasts 360-degree visionThese are the eye-catching images which capture the beauty in the eyes of the animal kingdom.
The colourful pictures show the delicate detail of a variety of animal eyes, from a tiger to a tree frog and a penguin to a parrotfish.
Perhaps the most remarkable is the eye of the veiled chameleon (below) whose upper and lower eyelids are joined together.
Always watchful: The eye of a Green Tree PythonThe creature sees through just a pinhole-sized pupil, but can rotate its eyes by 360 degrees.
By focusing each eye independently, the chameleon can look at two different objects simultaneously. But if prey is sighted, deploying both eyes in the same direction will ensure a sharp view of insects up to 10 metres away.
Pretty in pink? The eye of a military macawThe green tree python, like all snakes, has an ever-watchful slit for an eye (above).
Covered by a thin veil of clear scales rather than an eyelid, the snake’s eye can remain constantly open. When it wants to sleep, the snake buries its face in the coils of its body.#
Joel Satore, a photographer who took a number of the shots, said: 'Animal eyes are really amazing to me, truly the gems in the crown when you consider how an entire animal looks.
'Some cat species, as well as some snakes and geckos all have great eyes, as if they come from another world.'
Ancient: The eye of a Grand Cayman Blue IguanaThe 45-year-old from Nebraska used a Nikon D-3 camera with either a 60mm or 105mm macro lens, to capture the eyes of animals he photographed at zoos and aquariums worldwide.
He added: 'I'm often so close to the animals I can smell their breath, which in the case of meat eaters is often both foul smelling and frightening at the same time.
'I decided to photograph animal eyes to try to get people to care about these endangered animals before it's too late.
source: dailymail
Posts
