Robin Sehres, age 12, of Rio Rico, Arizona, for her question:

Are all animals really color blind?

Naturally we can't see the world through the eyes of an animal but scientific tests reveal that some species see colors, somewhat as we do. And some surprising creatures see colors beyond our range of vision. However, many of our familiar mammals cannot see colors. For example, color TV is wasted on our cats and dogs. They see the world in shades of grey, with black and white accents.

Every animal species has a miraculous set of sense organs, suitable to his surroundings and his life style. Some of these animal senses are sharper or duller than ours and some are so different that they are beyond our imaginations. For example, the bat senses sonar signals that are much too high for human ears. The earthworm senses light through his skin and the katydid has ears in her knees. The study of animal senses is quite new    and the job has barely begun.

Vision is one of the most interesting of the animal senses and from what we have learned so far, it is full of surprises. For example, down in the ocean lives the shy, leggy octopus. His large eyes look very human    and sure enough, he sees colors much as we do. Many of the fishes also have excellent color vision. Scientists enjoy testing the blenny fishes because these smart little fellows can be taught and trained. By rewarding them with tasty snacks, it has been learned that the blennies can distinguish objects by their size and shapes, by their colors and brightness.

Apparently, many creatures that belong to the sea behold their watery world in living colors. And many land dwelling species also enjoy color vision, though perhaps not the ones you would expect. Each, of course, has his own special type of vision and in some cases the colors they see or don't see are surprising. Many insects tested have color vision and most of them see the greens and blues more vividly~tban we do. However, the busy ant is unable to see reds.

The robin sees the world in full color and so do other birds that are active during the daytime. The worm the robin hopes to catch merely senses variations in light and darkness. The frogs see the world in tones of black and white    but nothing discourages these cheerful creatures. Salamanders also lack color vision.

You would expect the highly advanced mammals to have color vision, perhaps like ours. But most of them see only in tones of black and white. Several monkey type lemurs see certain colors, though they cannot distinguish red as we do.

A color blind person can see a whole range of colors, though he or she tends to confuse shades of red, green or yellow. Avery few people see only in tones of black and white    and this colorless condition is said to be "acromatic". Cats and dogs, frogs and salamanders actually are acromatic, rather than color blind.