And the Champion of Night Vision is...The Frog

Which animal would you trust to find a specific colored object—say, a gold coin—at night? The eagle? The owl? The tiger?

If you picked any of those, you'd be way off. The creature you need for such a task is none other than...the frog.

Most vertebrates, including humans, have two types of vision cells in their eyes: rods and cones. Cones allow us to see color, but they need lots of light and shut down in the dark. That's when rods step in: enabling us to navigate home, even when everything around us looks black and white.

However, in frogs and toads, the rods are more specialized, allowing them to see color even in darkness.

The new research, which crowned frogs as the champions of precise night vision (other animals may see farther, but none compete with them in nocturnal color vision), was conducted by researchers from Lund University in Sweden. The researchers set up situations where frogs had to find their way out of a dark trap—a scenario they often face in nature when caught in caves or burrows. Finding the exit in these cases is critical, so the frog uses all sensory information available. In another setup, they tested how frogs search for food in complete darkness.

In both situations, the result was the same: frogs used their night color vision to achieve their goals—whether it was escape or finding food.

"We were amazed at how these animals could see color in extreme darkness," says Professor Almut Kelber, who led the research. "Previously, we've shown that moths, for example, can see color in very dim conditions compared to humans. However, it seems that only frogs are blessed with the ability to see colors in true darkness."