Are rats colorblind??

[scienceloversmom]

31 years ago, my science teacher in fourth grade led us through a science fair project that hypothisized that rats were in fact colorblind. We used male and female rats and three peices of yarn red, blue and yellow I think. that is about where the memory stops. We would like to try and recreate this project but can not find anything at all referencing such a topic. any hints on research/procedure would be fantastic.

[shijun]

Hello,

Interesting! I believe I was told that too at some point, and found several reference to rats being colorblind:

http://www.liphatech.com/rf_norway_rat.html

http://www.pestproducts.net/norway.htm

http://www.corkyspest.com/rat_roof.html

As for creating an experiment. Try playing around with different colored cheese or objects e.g. styrofoam in the shapes of cheese and see if you can notice any pattern of preference/attraction.

Shijun
Science Buddies Staff