Rabbits Have Grainy Night Vision

Since rabbits are not nocturnal, they lack the unique feature of the eye that reflects light and enables animals to see in complete darkness (called the tapetum lucidum). When there is total darkness, a rabbit must rely on their other senses to find their way.

However, the vision of a rabbit is still much superior to that of a human. Rod cells, which are useful in dim light, make up a substantially higher fraction of the retina in rabbit eyes. Therefore, rabbits will have a less precise, grainy night vision as long as there is some moonlight. Similar to when you attempt to take a photo in the dark and it produces a highly blurry image. The image is not nice, but you can tell what's in it.

Instead, rabbit eyes were designed to perform well in dimly lit environments. The times around dawn and dusk, when it's not completely dark but also not too bright, are typically when rabbits are the most active. At this time of day, rabbits have the upper hand over nocturnal predators, who see best in the dark, and nocturnal predators, who see best in bright light.