THE BASIC TYPES OF PANORAMIC SENSING
Panoramic sensing is an integral part of how animals manage to survive. Watch how the blackbird, pulling at a worm, continually checks for danger. And hares ears are always poised, waiting for signs of danger while they're eating.
Vulnerable animals combine or alternate almost all of their focused activities with periods of panoramic sensing.
Even when dozing, animals maintain a panoramic awareness of the lights, shadows, sounds and scents around them. The hare turns his ears outwards, open for sounds, and sleeping birds keep one eye open.
Among humans, during the dream state, we always focus. I don't know if this applies to animals, or if it is just a reflection of normal human behaviour. In addition, i don't know if animals are able to maintain their passive panoramic awareness while they are dreaming, i imagine this is not possible.
Focusing and panoraming are not true opposites. If anything then focusing is opposite to sleeping; panoraming is combined with both.
Panoramic Hunting
When hunting, predatory animals use panoramic seeing to watch over a limited panoramic area, and then look for specific changes within this area
A kingfisher panoraming at a stretch of water is not interested in how the grass or leaves are moving. They watch for ripples or maybe colours under the water, periodically focusing on 'things which might be' – notice how the head is kept still, if the head were moving it wouldn't be able to see movements in the water.
The same behaviour can be witnessed in a falcon hovering in strong wind looking for prey. They watch over an open field to look out for life forms, maybe ultraviolet shapes, or small brown and feathered things moving, they're not interested in the cars going by.
Most birds have a sensitivity to ultraviolet light, a quick panoramic glance enables them to detect any life forms. I don't know how sensitive falcons or kingfishers are to ultraviolet light and i don't know if fish reflect ultraviolet light – but i have to set limits to my acedemic research – this is a vast subject, and the first main point is that predators combine panoramic and focused sensing in order to hunt for specific prey.
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