How do scientists know if an animal has B/W sight?

@Alnitak (423)
Italy
September 10, 2008 3:17am CST
A few days ago I've seen a documentary where they were saying that some animals could only see in black and white. That's fine... but how do they know? :D I mean, it is possible by studying their eyes or they have to make some kind of test?
1 person likes this
4 responses
Galena
@Galena (9110)
•
10 Sep 08
I think they do see colour, but maybe not in the same way we do. but we had a dog who adored purple things, in a way he never responded to things in a similar shade of blue. purple things made him really excited and happy.
Alnitak
@Alnitak (423)
• Italy
10 Sep 08
Hehe, that's nice :D Maybe it reminded him the color of something to eat :)
super_jj
@super_jj (1416)
• Philippines
10 Sep 08
They study the cones inside animals' eyes and estimate what colors the animal sees. THe technique is called "microspectrophotometry" (whew! long word). this process analyzes the visual pigmants and photo sensitivity of cells in order to determine how and what colors the animals see.
Alnitak
@Alnitak (423)
• Italy
10 Sep 08
Hey, thanks for your explanation ;) I'll make a search about the long word :D
lilaclady
@lilaclady (28207)
• Australia
10 Sep 08
I have often wondered that although I have seen animals doing tricks and they go by the colours so I am not sure they know, some so called experts say animals can't see whats on a TV but I have seen a dog watching other animals on TV and barking when a dog comes on....so maybe they only guess these things...
Alnitak
@Alnitak (423)
• Italy
10 Sep 08
Hi, I've never heard that animals couldn't see TV... anyway, there are also lot of scientific news that are misunderstood by journalists ;)
manjalvaanam
@manjalvaanam (272)
• India
11 Sep 08
As our friend said they have "cones" cells which are responsible for this.also these cells help them to see in dark...humans lack "cones" ,thats why we are unable to see in dark(without light)...best example of how things appear for animals is the night vision camera which is used frequently in Discovery channel to capture animals during night....