# Which animals (besides humans) have eye colors other than brown/black, and why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 29, 2017, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649 "2017-05-29T14:58:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/1 "2017-05-29T14:58:08Z")
Obviously human eyes come in many colors, but it seems black/brown eyes are the overwhelming majority across the animal kingdom. The exceptions I’m personally familiar with are dogs and cats. Some varieties of both are blue eyed, and there are plenty of orange eyed cats. I’m guessing in both cases that is probably due to human tinkering: a mutant is born, some human saw it and thought it was cute/interesting enough to favor it in breeding. Are there other species where humans have breed for different eye colors? What about non-domesticated animals? What is the advantage of the different eye colors in those species? For that matter, what was the advantage of having dark eyes? Just to better block out light that isn’t coming through the pupil? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/2 "2017-05-29T17:36:48Z")
Apparently, if you Google “blue eyed lemurs,” you will find a few species. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Terrific](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tom_terrific/32/342_2.png) [@Tom\_Terrific](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Terrific)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/3 "2017-05-29T17:45:20Z")
Some paint horses have a blue eye. I’ve not seen one with both eyes that are blue but there may be some. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/4 "2017-05-29T18:56:31Z")
Various tree frogs have all kinds of eye colors. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/5 "2017-05-29T19:40:52Z")
Huskies and some cattle dogs have blue eyes, I think pit bulls also sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/6 "2017-05-29T19:47:44Z")
IIRC, blue eyes along with white fur in cats is a marker for deafness. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/7 "2017-05-29T20:28:38Z")
Yellows, oranges and reds are fairly common amongst birds; many birds’ eyes change color as they mature, as well, or during breeding seasons. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/8 "2017-05-29T20:51:52Z")
Nigerian Dwarf Goats have blue eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/9 "2017-05-29T21:31:29Z")
[Here’s](http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/09/04/4294967.htm) an article on the evolution of eye colour in _humans_ which basically says ‘we really have no idea, here’s some theories’ - so if the reasons for eye colour aren’t sorted out for us, probably nobody knows the reasons for eye colour in animals either. One theory is simple sexual attractiveness, and that’s probably worth a look. If it were true, it would probably correlate with how good the colour vision of the animal in question is. Looking at the species above - birds have great colour vision. Cats and dogs not so much, but then any eye colour variation was probably heavily influenced by _us_. I don’t know about frogs, but I presume they mostly have good colour vision since their skin is often all different sorts of colours, and what else would that be useful for? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/10 "2017-05-30T03:18:05Z")
Aren’t most mammalian babies born with blue eyes? I’ve always thought that blue eyes were a failure in the maturing process caused by lack of melatonin. I do know that we blue-eyed creatures take in more light than others. We can see marginally better in the dark than our brown-eyed kin, but are also more likely to suffer retinal burns in bright snow. So it would make more sense if blue eyes were common in dense Jungle areas, but they aren’t. They seem to be a consequence of the light skin/hair evolution that happened when humans settled in Northern climes. Despite blue eyes being a detriment in the winter, the vitamin D producing benefits of having lower melatonin levels were all-around more positive than the occasional retinal burns were negative. And I suppose night-vision gets more useful where the days are super short. I’ve also seen a study which suggested that all blue-eyed people go back to a single human with the mutation. But I don’t see why we should assume that a mutation could happen only once. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/11 "2017-05-30T03:49:35Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Aren’t most mammalian babies born with blue eyes? I’ve always thought that blue eyes were a failure in the maturing process caused by lack of melatonin. You are confusing melatonin, the sleep-cycle hormone, for melanin, the dark colored pigment. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/12 "2017-05-30T08:57:16Z")
Some reptiles have golden eyes. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/13 "2017-05-30T14:18:06Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > You are confusing melatonin, the sleep-cycle hormone, for melanin, the dark colored pigment. You are right, thank you. I knew that looked wrong, but couldn’t put my finger on it. > [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Some reptiles have golden eyes. As did my ex. Coincidence? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/14 "2017-05-30T14:29:16Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > … > One theory is simple sexual attractiveness, and that’s probably worth a look… 🙂 Nice double meaning. Intentional (“I saw what you did there)?” ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/15 "2017-05-30T15:35:57Z")
Random thoughts: True albino mammals will have red eyes. Horses & dogs can have blue eyes, and I’ve also see gold eyes (which really is just a weird light shade of brown, I guess) Cats have all sorts of shades, including green, gold, blue, and various combinations of those. Goat’s eyes tend to be yellowish, but they can have blue eyes too. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/16 "2017-05-31T03:58:39Z")
> [@Darwins\_Finch](#): > > Yellows, oranges and reds are fairly common amongst birds; many birds’ eyes change color as they mature, as well, or during breeding seasons. Or vary by gender, as with Bushtits. ---
**Author:** ![dba\_Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-animals-besides-humans-have-eye-colors-other-than-brown-black-and-why/787649/17 "2017-05-31T15:17:50Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > \ > As did my ex. Coincidence? :dubious: Your ex **what**? 😕