this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2025
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I think that's specific to mammals. Just off the top of my head...
Invertebrates? No. All out
Fish? No. Also a Hammerhead would've really sold this comic lol.
Birds? No. Though, even on the side they do often have a tilt toward frontal in a lot of predatory birds. It could be argued...
Reptiles? No.
Amphibians? No. There's no even trying to place rules on that optical chaos.
Mammals? Yeah, pretty much. Can't think of an outlier but I'm sure there's plenty of obvious ones.
Edit' Ah, there we go. Of course marine mammals are an exception. But back in land, as too are llamas. Makes you wonder...what are the llamas plotting?
whales and dolphins are mammals, and they have eyes on the side. Don't think anything preys on them (at least for the full-grown ones, pretty sure baby whales are preyed on)
Sperm whales are apex(orcas will target calves but they stay the hell away from bulls) but they don't hunt their monstrous cephalopod prey(which in any sane ecosystem would be apex themselves) with eyes.
A non-predator mammal with front facing eyes: llamas.
Are llamas' eyes not side-facing? That's what it looks like in photos to me
They need them for spitting.
Llamas are dangerous, so if you see one where people are swimming, you shout: Look out, there are llamas!
This joke only works in Spanish.
"Cuidado, hay llamas!" ... I don't get it.
pretty sure they face forwards. That's what Minecraft ones look like, anyway, and a quick search of real ones look like they have forward-facing eyes
Source: Minecraft block model is a legendary reply
They're sideways facing eyes, but a bit diagonal. Definitely not forward facing though. They're just a bit bulgy.
So like halfway. I'm half right then. Half of a yes!
Pandas as well. Non-predator but clearly front facing eyes.
...i am withholding all judgments on pandas until my full research has been completed...i heard something on the internet...
Pandas are descendants of omnivores with a predator streak, them rat fucking their diet to near koala levels of bad doesn't really factor in yet.
Or they need it that way to learn kung-fu
Idk if "descendants of omnivores" counts because then you could exclude a number of critters like pigs for being "descendants of herbivores" and then 'why do pigs have more stereoscopic vision than a t-rex '
The obvious caveat is that pandas at the minimum don't have selective pressure for side eyes or they have something pressuring stereoscopic vision even more similar to how aquatic animals have less selective pressure for forward facing eyes.
I would imagine the way pandas eat bamboo stalks is more visual than most herbivores and that alone could help them retain steroscopic vision.
But Pandas are bears and haven't changed much. They eat plants and their guts have not even evolved to do so yet. They are a wonder.
They want your sweater back.....
I remember there used to be a goat on some island (now extinct) that didn't have any predators so it evolved forward facing eyes
There's also evidence that people tried to domesticate them, their hooves were trimmed.
Exception: Sloth
Sloths are weird all the extinct sloths had side eyes. The ones today dont. I'm guessing depth perception for climbing. Because the list goes really big when arboreal prey animals are involved. Lemurs, sugar gliders monkeys great apes.
not sloths, Sloth.
I invite you to meet the awesome jumping spider, whose eyes are very especially needed set up to be forward-facing for depth perception for their jumps, and who hunt other spiders, as well as the wolf spider, who are also a hunting (as opposed to web) spider.
In fact, you can use the chart of spider eye layouts to pretty much identify whether you're looking at a spider who builds webs and waits or a spider who hunts:
Anyone with two big forward-facing eyes is probably looking around for their next meal; the rest are building a web, trapdoor, or taking some other approach.
Also crabs. I mean, their eyes are often on stalks and more mobile than mammalian eyes, and they're compound, so they have a very wide field of view, but they're still often basically in front, and they do apparently provide depth cues for hunting thanks to this.
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/38/31/6933
It also occurred to me to look up about dragonflies, and it seems they mostly hunt dorsally (which is a pretty viable option if you're flying). BUT I found this article about Damselflies, which notes that they rely on binocular overlap and line up their prey in front of them. Which is pretty cool.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982219316641
Horseshoe crabs have nine different types of eyes. Even that tail is essentially a kind of eye, covered with photoreceptors. Not sure of the relevance of this horseshoe crab fact, it's just fucking interesting.
Had a bunch of wolf spiders in the last shop i worked at as a welder. They have eye shine like cats and alligators. It was always easy to tell the wolf spiders from black widows even behind a dusty welding machine because you can see the little wolf spider eyes looking back at you.
Huntsman is also a hunting spider
spider photo
Those are some wild gamepad layouts
Birds of prey absolutely have their eyes positioned on the front of their heads. It's most obvious in owls, since they have the largest eyes and wider faces, but all of them have front-facing eyes for binocular vision.
Most primates eat fruit or leaves, but have forward facing eyes because they need depth perception for climbing/jumping, not for hunting.
Squirrels have eyes on the sides of their heads and they're pretty fucking good at climbing and jumping. Next theory ...
Other theories are for depth perception for getting at fruit in trees, another is the first but they need depth perception because they're bigger than a squirrel
If a squirrel falls they're probably not going to squish as hard as a monkey. Lots of scavengers also have forward facing eyes (ex racoons) and pandas notably have forward facing eyes and are herbivorous.
I think the climbing and jumping theory is better than the predator theory on account that it explains why large aquatic animals aren't selected for close frontal eyes.
Plus many predators (cats notably) do climb and jump. Humans and monkeys also have werd postures that might lead to them falling over easier.
In reality its probably never just one pressure that leads to these kind of evolutions.
You don't need a unified theory of why animals have binocular vision.
The biggest threat to a primate isn't always felines, it's often other primates. Judging distance to your target is a very beneficial trait for survival if you need to fight them. Which means if you need to survive other primates, it is beneficial to be able to judge distance to other primates. Even if you're not a predator.
Gorillas might be herbivores. But they are excellent at fighting eachother. And a dead gorilla can't reproduce.
Bats also have forward facing eyes I think (correct me on this please!), but most of them aren't carnivorous. They eat fruits and bugs and stuff.
Well, if they hunt bugs, they are predators, no?
Predators yes, carnivores no. Things that eat bugs are insectivores.
Honestly though, almost no mammals are purely carnivorous, herbivorous, or insectivorous. The majority of species will opportunistically eat what is available.
Yeah, and you don't have to be a carnivore to be a predator.
Besides humans, aren't most apes prey animals?
What do you mean by prey animals? Animals that prey on others or are you calling them prey themselves? And just because an animal is a predator doesn't mean there aren't larger predators that will kill and eat them. Ultimately most apes are omnivores who eat fruit and berries, along with leaves and other shit, but will eat meat and have been known to prey on animals, yet it's not their main source of food. They're not apex predators but they aren't actively prey.
The same holds true for a lot of animals. There aren't many purely "vegan" animals. A horse will snack a mouse too if it gets the opportunity.
Plus evolutionary history shows plenty of examples of animals switching from pure carnivore to pure herbivore to omnivores in between, and back the other direction. All birds are descended from a common carnivorous ancestor, but plenty of birds today subsist mostly on seeds or fruit.
If there is a lot of available biomass to be eaten, nature will find a way and some animal is going to fill that niche. Many of the folivores (herbivores specializing in digesting leaves) that descended from carnivores have to deal with the low nutrient/calorie density of their foods by just eating a lot of it, and have varying levels of microbial symbiosis for helping with that digestion.
Convergent evolution has more to do with environment and trophic structure than it has to do with lineage. Any animal that can produce a complex eye can have similar evolutionary pressure given similar environments unless there's some other stronger pressure.
Animals low to the ground or water often have slitted eyes (including goats who spend a of time with their heads down)