Welcome to Laser Pointer Forums - discuss green laser pointers, blue laser pointers, and all types of lasers

Buy Site Supporter Role (remove some ads) | LPF Donations

Links below open in new window

FrozenGate by Avery

Studies about animals react on lasers

DJNY

DJNY

0
Joined
Nov 2, 2009
Messages
5,991
Points
83
I asked myself if anybody has published some informations about their reaction. Some animals are fascinated by laser-light (they are cool), and others are afraid of it. I´m interested if you can scare an attacking crocodile/lion for example or play with them :D
Maybe it has something to do with specific wavelength few of the eyes and the discoverer character of some animals. I was also thinked about that in the animal world in most cases "red" signals danger, but they also react on other laser-colors!
Does anybody know why they react so different?

Edit: cat vs 405nm
 

Attachments

Last edited:





I do not really know of any specific study about this, but I can tell a bit about my personal experience..

405nm: 2 cats I know go completely nuts when they see it. They will chase it anywhere, any time. If I move it up the wall they will jump like crazy to reach it, even if they have no chance of jumping that high. Dogs will stare a bit at it, but generally ignore it. Birds ignore it (I have obviously not tried with any significant power, so maybe they just don't see it).

532nm: Cats chase it quite a lot, but not as much as 405nm. It sometimes scares the cat (perhaps because even 4-5mW is very bright). Dogs bark like crazy and chase after it. I have never had a dog ignore a green laser. Birds get scared easily, and you can even control the flight of a whole group of birds in mid-air with the beam.

650nm: Cats chase it sometimes, ignore it other times. Dogs bark at it or ignore it. Birds get scared and fly away.

It would be fun to hear what other people's experiences are with animals' reactions to the different wavelengths, and if they follow the same patterns.
Seb
 
I have a 50mw green and 5mw red and violet. All five of my cats will chase any colour with enthusiasm. The motion seems to be more important than the colour. My dogs respond best to the green, but it's also possible that it's the easiest to see as it is more powerful. They don't usually chase it, but the watch with some interest. The horses will follow the green around, but not the red or violet.
 
Garter snakes chase the green & ignore red (the only 2 colors I have right now)

My oscar (fish) & the minnows in my creek - Chase after green or red equally, however the green laser seems to penetrate the water better, so the fish way down deep in the creek go gaga when I take my 30mw rayfoss down to the stream.

my dogs chase the green always, and our female dog will even jump in the air and try to bite the beam in half. they don't seem interested in red.

our cat just sits there looking at me like "yeah right, I ain't chasing that for you" either colour.

Used to have a cat once that chased the red dot, until he chased it into the wall an thumped his head hard.

Then all he had to do was see the pointer in your hand, he would run and hide. He associated the pointer with smacking his head into the wall.
 
Last edited:
i got 2 cats who wont even look at lasers
I tried green blue red and violet and they dont even look at it or notice it.

my cousins dog on the other hand goes wild after seeing a laser any color will do, even a flashlight wil do lol. He just keeps chasing the dot from laser or flashlight but he particulairy seems to go for green.

lets just all be carefull not to shine toward the faces of animals and shiny objects near animals before you know the laser can reflects back into their eyes and we dont want that to happen.
I know allot of you guys are save with lasers but still a warning like this is never bad thing right?

edit: cats are both female and the dog is male if that matters
 
Last edited:
Xtrm2Rick said:
lets just all be carefull not to shine toward the faces of animals and shiny objects near animals before you know the laser can reflects back into their eyes and we dont want that to happen.
I know allot of you guys are save with lasers but still a warning like this is never bad thing right?
Click to expand...


Never bad to remind others of the dangers involved.
 
DJNY said:
I was also thinked about that in the animal world in most cases "red" signals danger, but they also react on other laser-colors!
Click to expand...


Yes, I heard of these human things once... They almost worship the color red, they roll around greatly in their steaming iron beasts but the color red stops them all at once. They even have an "enforcer of the red" to stop them and charge them a great sum of their (green no doubt) trading currency if they dare disobey the great redness. :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:
 
Some invertebrate animals such as colored rotifers and flatworms (mircoturbellarians) swam away when in the presence of a beam from a low powered laser (red, green and violet). A lot of these animals posses a photoreceptors for light but their behavior is always negative in respect of a laser light of any wavelengths :)


EDIT: I inserted a picture of a microturbellarian of genus Stenostomum
 

Attachments

  • steno.jpg
    steno.jpg
    45.5 KB · Views: 657
Last edited:
My cats (siblings, male and female) are very curious about the beam and the dot (both 532 and 473). They rarely chase the dot, but watch as though fascinated, and want to sniff the beam (when they get that close, I move it away). My girl Lily will stare at it and follow it around, but Yoda loses interest.

The social birds (pigeons, etc.) outside take off when I aim the beam near them. I've put the dot on a tree near our resident woodpecker, and he just turned his head as if "wtf?".
 
My cats love 405, are meh about green and red is somewhere in between. 405 warrants immediate chasing, all though they don't like is at much when it's drowned out by fluorescence. Green, they only like higher powers (I don't let them get near it). Red, they like it enough to chase it for a while.
 
My cat, and both dogs show no reaction when I shine my green, violet or red in front of them around them or anywhere for that matter, they're boring :p

My cat is a siamese/Burmese cross, a Dalmatian and a cocker spaniel similar to this one:

7-30_Brown_Cocker_Spaniel.jpg


But better looking :)
 
My cats go wild when they see the beam, they try to smell it lol. My bird is blind so it cannot see anything, but the birds ouside do nothing when I point arround.
 
Rafa said:
My cats go wild when they see the beam, they try to smell it lol. My bird is blind so it cannot see anything, but the birds ouside do nothing when I point arround.
Click to expand...

the seagulls in santa barbara tried to eat any colors of lasers we tried. But hell, they ate anything. They were becoming so much of a nuisance at my old school, swooping down and eating your food the moment your hands were away and making a huge mess everywhere, that we tried everything to get rid of them. Laser pointers (red and green), those red flags, spikes on perches, even leaving food out that was covered in wasabi. The birds did NOT like wasabi, bet every time you chased one off with that ten more came in.
 
I wonder if a 500mw green would stop a Grizzlybarrr from charging and eating you, any one want to try this out and get back to me :crackup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.





Back
Top