First It Looks Like A Man Walking In The Forest, And Then It Hits You

Optical illusions are fun way to examine the disconnect between our eyes and brain. Take for example this picture below, which has gone viral on Twitter, because people can't figure out if it's a man walking in the woods or a dog running towards you...

Twitter // Is it a man or poodle dog?

When you look at the image for the first time -- even at the thumbnail of this story -- you'll think you're seeing what looks like a man walking away from you in the snowy forest, and frankly that's what everyone will perceive.

Until you look closer at the optical illusion once again and notice closely that it's actually a black poodle dog running towards the camera or screen. Yes, it's not a man with snow on his jacket and trousers but a black poodle dog that's running through the snow.

This image has gone viral and everyone's talking about it on Twitter, as people notice how their eyes are tricking them into seeing a man walking in the forest at first, before watching the image more closely to realise it's actually a black poodle dog that's being pictured -- not a man.

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Here are some of the tweets that have made this man vs dog poodle image viral recently...

I totally saw a man running into the wooods. Until I looked again. Do you see it? pic.twitter.com/JdCF768pze

¡ª Just a Guy ?? (@ClarkpDavidson) February 3, 2021

An optical illusion for tonight. First you see a man running into the snow ... and then ... pic.twitter.com/R9Lj1mlR5X

¡ª nxthompson (@nxthompson) February 4, 2021

What do you see ? pic.twitter.com/ehmtXEyGGT

¡ª sharon champagne????¡â? (@yogachampagne) February 3, 2021

What are optical illusions?

Optical illusions happen when what the eyes are seeing doesn't get comprehended by the brain in a manner that's consistent with reality. Our brains are programmed to quickly recognize and identify things, whatever it may be, and years of evolution has trained our brain to minimize that recognition time down to as little as possible.

This is why people see a man in the picture, where none exist but only a black poodle dog -- the brain is tricked because it tries to register the outline of a man and jump to the conclusion that our eyes are in fact seeing a man.

But that's obviously not true in this case, as we can all see a poodle dog when we look at the image one more time, ideally in a more enlarged form. And that's what causes the optical illusion to happen.