• 1 - Bighorn Sheep

• 2 - River Otter
• 3 - Red Fox
• 4 - Wolf
• 5 - Downy Woodpecker
• 6 - Mountain Goat
• 7 - Beaver
• 8 - Pronghorn Antelope
• 9 - Raven
• 10 - Gopher
• 11 - Raccoon
• 12 - Bobcat
• 13 - Great Horned Owl
• 14 - Yellow-bellied Marmot
• 15 - White-tail Deer

• 16 - Great Blue Heron
• 17 - Jackrabbit
• 18 - Moose
• 19 - Coyote
• 20 - Elk
• 21 - Bald Eagle
• 22 - Mallard Hen
• 23 - Badger
• 24 - Grizzly Bear
• 25 - Mountain Lion
• 26 - Mule Deer
• 27 - Trumpeter Swan

• 28 - Bison
• 29 - Peregrine Falcon
• 30 - Skunk
• 31 - Trout
• 32 - Turkey
• 33 - Wood Duck
• 34 - Chukar
• 35 - Ring-necked Pheasant
• 36 - Bat

The placement of a mammal's eyes can indicate if it is a predator or a prey animal. And most mammals, whether predator or prey, are colored to avoid being seen. If you ever wonder about whether an animal is prey or predator, remember this. "Eyes to the front, they hunt, eyes to the side, they hide." Here is a brief look at mammal vision.

Predators have eyes that face forward. The field of vision for each eye overlaps in the front to create binocular vision. Binocular vision gives the predator better depth perception and helps them catch prey moving at high speeds. A prey animal has eyes that face sideways, with only a small area of overlap between the field of vision for each eye. This large field of vision lets the prey animal see almost all the way around its body, giving it lots of opportunity to spot a predator and run to safety.

Prey animals are always alert for the presence of a predator. The eyes of prey animals are large and are placed on each side of the head - monocular vision. This provides good vision on both sides, so they have a greater field of vision without having to turn their heads. Many prey animals have large ears and excellent hearing. Most have a keen sense of smell. Often, predators try to approach downwind of their prey. Even with its head down to graze, a deer will notice the smallest nearby movement. Similarly, a rabbit can see in almost every direction.

Good eyesight is important to help predators in locating food. Predators generally have both eyes in front of their heads, so that they are looking forward, which gives the animal binocular, rather than monocular, vision. Binocular vision permits an animal to judge the distance of an object accurately. This is important when a predator is trying to leap at or run down an animal. Cheetahs and hawks, for example, have binocular vision. Birds of prey have very sharp eyesight. The golden eagle has the keenest eyesight in the animal kingdom. Seeing the world about eight times more clearly than through human eyes, this regal hunter has no trouble seeing a rabbit at a distance of over a mile. Falcon eyes must have the ability for high-resolution and dynamic correction while diving at almost 200 miles per hour.

Surprisingly, bears have poor distance vision. Although they will eat meat if the chance arises, the main staple of their diet is vegetation. Therefore, their eyes are adapted to see well at short distances. To evaluate distant objects, these large omnivores rely on their hearing and smelling abilities.

Some animals have keen eyesight during daylight hours. Others can see well in dim light. To humans, the night is a blanket of darkness, but the raccoon can see as plain as day. Most mammals are active both day and night but those that are nocturnal have big eyes with large pupils. Nocturnal creatures need oversized eye openings to let in all available light. Animals that travel at night, such as owls and skunks, need eyes that can see in the dark.

Some mammal eyes contain the equivalent of a curved mirror at the retina surface at the back of the eye where the eye reflects light back through sensors to its source. Mammals that have this type of eye include cats, rabbits, and antelope. The color reflected is the primary color of the visual pigments in the photoreceptors. For example, white light reflects golden from cats' eyes, red from rabbits, and white from antelope. This is also true for moles and small rodents that spend most of their time living where it is dark. They can’t depend upon their vision so they use sensitive feelers and whiskers to find their way. The owl's night vision is so exceptional it probably sees better at night than we humans do during the day. Although an owl cannot move its huge eyes inside its sockets, it can turn its head all the way around to see what is behind it.

In addition to eyesight, bats use acoustic echo sensing, which is similar to what we know as radar. Though they rely on visual clues for sight both day and night, when they operate in darkness they place higher priority on their echo-location capability. Their unique image processing system is fast and efficient, which enables them to fly complex paths through small passageways at low light levels. There are more than 1,000 bat species in the world. That means that more than a quarter of the total number of species in the mammal kingdom are bats.

(Note: Fish are not mammals but were included in the eyes in the Montana Eyes Match-up.)

Fish have fairly complex camera eyes, some of which are extremely elegant and versatile in design. Fish eyes need to be highly developed, since many are sight-feeders rather than smell-feeders. Some have the ability to see both above and below the water. They have good spatial resolution and color vision. Fish have flattened corneas, rather than the higher curvature corneas of land animals, because of the need to match the different index of refraction requirements of water rather than air. Even if the fish eye’s cornea does not contribute to overall optical correction, it still acts as a window to the water. Water deeper than 15 meters acts as an optical filter to exclude most infrared and ultraviolet light, so there is less need for most fish to have extended color vision.