How is known for sure if a creature sees in black & white or color?

Answer 1

You can look at the structures in their eyes. There are two types - rods and cones. Rods allow the creature to see contrast and in low light, while cones can absorb different colors and transmit that information. Thus, if an animal has a lot of rods but few cones, it can only see black and white or maybe mono-chromatically, and also probably has good night vision. If there are a lot of cones, its a safe bet that it can see color.

Answer 2

Not only does the structure of the creature's eyes play a role, but scientific experiments with different colors allow researches to determine if the creature can differentiate between colors.

Answer 3

We ask the dog what color he sees, and when he just gives us a blank stare and doesn't say anything, we know that he cannot see any colors.

Like most of the people have said above, we make a guess based on the structure of the eye. Of course, no one really knows.

The eyes of most mammals are adapted to work best in low light situations (I.E.: in the dark). Therefore most mammals have a large concentration of rods rather than cones. Rods help you see in the dark, but they are usually not color sensitive.

Answer 4

It depends on the rods and cones at the back of the creature's eyeballs. The more of these there are the greater the chance that they see in color.

Answer 5

You have to do experiments. In general animals that eat fruit see in color because unripe fruit is usually green and then it turns color when it is ripe.
Since cows eat grass and plants it is not important to see in color. The same with felines and canines. They need to see motion but not color.
Also animals that go to flowers like bees and butterflies need to tell colors.

Answer 6

The amount of rods and cones in the anatomy of the eye. Follow the link.

Answer 7

If this were true, how camn a seeing eye dog, distinguish the colors of the traffic lights? I don't believe that this is true .