Eyes in the dark - help needed!

Hi,

Was out walking on some open ground in the suburbs yesterday and turned on my M6. About 100 yards distant, two yellow eyes glowed back at me very strongly - they gave me a real start (I was not expecting to see them). The creature ran away at a steady pace.

I got a feeling that it may have been a fox or a badger, however the long grass hid the bottom half of the creature making identification difficult.

Perhaps someone on the forum knows what colour a foxes or badgers eyes glow?

Thanks for any advice to help me clear up the mystery!

Ian, UK

I managed to light up a creature with a red eye at around that range, but I was only carrying a C2 with P60 lamp, so it didn't provide enough to identify it. However, I think it was a bird because of the way it turned its head and the fact that only one eye is visible until it turns to look at me, then you can see slivers of both.

The eyes act as a retro-reflector. The color they were glowing was probably due to the color of your flashlight.

A ton of animals have the reflective layer in their eyes... deer, dogs, cats, etc etc. Both herbivores and predators. It's really impossible to know what it was from your description.

You could always pick up a spiffy gen 3 night vision scope and know for sure!

When I saw the thread's subject, I immediately thought of the Star Trek: TNG episode "Night Terrors".
During Counsellor Troi's dream sequences, a man's voice would always say "eyes in the dark...one moon circles" and "can you see the eyes...in the dark". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Hi,

Wondered who might notice that one /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif!

Ian

In my observation of domestic animals, cats seem to reflect red and dogs yellow. Humans also reflect red. I don't know about wild animals. Maybe it was an animal in the dog family such as a fox.