How do we know which animals are color blind?

Answer 1

you ask them with an experiment. You train them to give you a certain response upon presentation of a color (it can be simpler than counting objects, e.g. bees learn quickly learn to fly to and land on a colored piece of paper if you put some sugar water on it).

After the animal is trained you present it with the color and with a gray card of equal brightness (like you would photograph the colored card using a black and white film).

Then watch the response of the animal. Does it always select the blue card in preference of the gray card, or can't it tell the difference. For the example of the bee, it would land equally often on each card if it can't tell the difference. At this stage of experiment you would have to have removed the sugar water so it can't smell that or see that.

It gets a bit more complicated than that, because you really have to check that your gray card is perceived as of equal brightness to the colored card by the animal. You can't assume that because it may be to us or to a camera it is the same for the animal. The easiest solution to that is to present cards with a range of gray values, but you can also figure things out doing more experiments.

You can check a whole range of colors this way and so can figure out which colors animals see. Some animals see more colors than us, some see less, others are really colorblind.

Answer 2

You can also look at the animals colors. Most birds see color and the males of each species are very colorful to attract females. Otherwise, why would they be so colorful if the females could not differentiate the colors. Same goes for fish.

Answer 3

I heard once that all animals are colored blind. I know dogs are. But some documentary on TV once, I believe is where I heard this.

Answer 4

The retina of the eye has two different types of light receptors--the rods and the cones. Rods give us black and white vision, cones give us color vision. If an animal does not have cones, we know they are color blind.

Answer 5

Check it out:
Teach a pig to count.
Now give it objects of two different colors (but the same darkness) to count. If it counts all them the same, it's colorblind. If it counts only one color, it sees in color.

The problem is, however, what if pigs normally see in color, but you have a colorblind pig and happen to choose the colors it cannot differentiate?

Answer 6

i'm colour blind. i become informed that once i become 9 years previous, yet at college they informed me i could not be colour blind as i'm female, yet I easily am as proved through my optician. i do not learn about what animals won't be able to see purple yet i'm able to't and that i guess i'm a minimum of Mamal if no longer animal.

Answer 7

the ones who are reading newspapers can only read in black and white. otherwise they would be reading cosmopolitan or playboy.

Answer 8

throw oranges at em...the ones tht duck aren't

Answer 9

wave different color clothes in front of them and ask wat color they are lol. idk mabey look it up on google or yahoo