this is moreso an observation I made while googling around and I don’t really have a reason but here’s what an article had to say:
Interestingly, large felines like tigers and lions do not have slit-shaped pupils but round-shaped. The reason for this is not exactly defined, but it is thought to be due to their greater height off the ground, their behavior as active foragers rather than ambush predators, or differences in their circadian rhythms compared to cats.
https://www.catster.com/lifestyle/why-do-cats-have-slit-pupils/
Labelling the Flash Reflection is really funny to me. It’s sort of like finding Saddam Hussein in places he shouldn’t be or a diagram of a cat brain which just shows smaller cats in a control room.
Image is from article linked in OP’s post
No, it make sense, not everyone realizes that it is actually an artefact and not part of the eye.
And a good thing they drew it in, then labeled it as irrelevant, too! Can you imagine how confusing the diagram would be otherwise!?
It’s there because it’s visible on a lot of cat photos.
It’s visible on human photos too, but when I go to my doctor’s office the diagram of the human eye doesn’t have it. That is a really strange thing to include in the diagram. I like it though, strange is good.
But now I wonder what the lighter green stuff in the bottom third of the eye is supposed to represent.