Color Vision in Beardies?

[Ghoul]

Hey y'all, I'm doing a project at school on bearded dragons and color vision. However, I can't find any sources for whether or not they can see colors, or which ones they can. Does anyone have any credible sources I could use on this topic?
Even just beardies and vision in general. I'm having a rough time.

 

[kingofnobbys]

It is every bit as good a your's, perhaps better as they are able to sense UV.

 

[HippieLizards]

It is every bit as good a your's, perhaps better as they are able to sense UV.

Yes, That's very true. Bearded dragons also have a good memory, I fed Cisco some hornworms (which are green) and a few weeks later I put on green nail polish, Cisco tried eating the green nail polish (she didn't eat any) off my fingers, The conclusion is that she saw the green, associated it with a hornworm and thought that it was a hornworm, But that happend weeks later. So I think they have good memory as well. Maybe you should include that in your project.

Hope you get an A!

-HippieLizards.

 

[SHBailey]

Our beardie wasn't into greens the last time we fed him a hornworm, and he looked at it quizzically for a few moments until it started moving. Once he realized it was a live worm instead of a green leaf, he scarfed it right up. :mrgreen:

Color vision-wise, I think he'd learned that black and brown things taste better than green things.

 

[HippieLizards]

Lol, I Know. Cisco and Thor (but thankfully not Daisy) have associated anything brown or black colored = Yummy! :roll: Even my hair, or my clothes, or my books. My dragons have all tried to eat inanimate objects.

Today I had to Stop Cisco from eating a old wash cloth that fell on the floor, Daisy tried eating a cookbook (I guess pizza looks yummy to beardies too!), and Thor found out that he had feet, and then took a bite of them (he was ok, but he was very suprised). :roll: :roll: Today has been crazy!

-HippieLizards.

 

[SHBailey]

Gee, I guess I'm lucky that our beardie doesn't try to eat his towels or his toes! :shock: The only non-edible objects he gets excited about are my knitting yarn and my husband's computer cables. We suppose that it looks like worms to him, especially if he sees it move -- that seems to matter more than color, although I have noticed that brightly colored yarn seem to attract his attention best, although the computer cables are usually black, and he goes nuts over those too.

Too bad conversations on this forum probably wouldn't be considered "credible sources" for your school project, Ghoul, otherwise you'd have some usable material already... :wink:

 

[Taterbug]

Hey y'all, I'm doing a project at school on bearded dragons and color vision. However, I can't find any sources for whether or not they can see colors, or which ones they can. Does anyone have any credible sources I could use on this topic?
Even just beardies and vision in general. I'm having a rough time.

Broaden your search to include scientific names and look into other reptiles as well. Bearded dragons aren’t specifically studied but other lizards are. I’m not sure what grade you are in but I have some sources that I can send you, they may or may not be too technical.

 

[Taterbug]

http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Reptile-Health/Habitats-Care/Reptile-Lighting-Information/

 

[SHBailey]

Thanks for posting this info, Taterbug. I'd heard that some reptiles in general and beardies in particular could see into the ultraviolet, but I didn't know it was because they had a 4th kind of cone. (I thought maybe it had something to do with their visual cortex integrating what was coming in from their parietal eye or their skin or whatever.) The color chart makes it look like they have better color vision across the spectrum than humans.

BTW (and forgive me if I'm getting way off topic here), has anyone heard about the relatively new finding that some human females (I think the guestimate is about 50%) have a 4th type of cone and can see more colors in the red wavelengths? Supposedly no men have it -- something to do with the extra X chromosome.

I also found out that in normal human vision, our lens filters out most of the ultraviolet, otherwise we'd be able to see into the ultraviolet as well. Apparently, there are people who have abnormal or absent lenses who actually can see some UV. My husband met one of them when he was doing narrow band UVB light therapy for a skin condition (basically a tanning booth for medical purposes). The guy could tell the difference when they turned the UV lights on, but could not see red traffic lights -- like the entire range of his color vision was shifted to the shorter wavelengths. My husband himself also says he can see a slight difference in terms of a little extra faint blue/violet when he looks at our beardie's UV lights without his glasses on (we both have ultraviolet shielding on our glasses, and no, we don't get too close and/or stare at them for too long). So I had to look it up -- after our last few years of experience with my husband's detached retina and cataract surgery, I was wondering what the heck was wrong with his eyes now... :?

...None of this is probably going to help Ghoul get a good grade on his school project, so please excuse the TLDR.

 

[Taterbug]

Many diurnal reptiles, birds and insects are tetrachromatic and there is a range of sensitivities. It’s not so much about “better” but what colors they are tuned too and how wide a range they see.

The parietal eye does see light and some color from what I understand, but behaves differently from typical eyes.

http://archives.evergreen.edu/webpages/curricular/2011-2012/m2o1112/web/reptiles.html

Humans can also detect some level of uv florecense (think black light posters and neon paint). It’s part of what makes some white objects so bright. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_brightener

 

[SHBailey]

Thanks again for these latest links. More fascinating stuff, as well as some good tips on what to do with the laundry... :wink:

 

[kingofnobbys]

we had a devil of a time keeping Toothless out of the crockery (floral design on the bowls and coffee mugs and plates).... he was a real livewire and nothing got past him .

The advantage of seeing UV is many plants and flowers and insects while drab to human eyes , are very bright in reflected UV light.

 

[SHBailey]

Yes -- I've heard we're at a disadvantage sometimes when we try to communicate with animals without some sort of a device to extend our senses, because many of them can see in wavelengths of light that we can't see, as well as hear sound frequencies that we can't hear.

I've often wondered what it looks like to our beardie when I have his UV lamp sitting on the other side of the glass while I have the tank open for whatever reason -- he often looks at it like, "When are you going to put my pretty color back?" I understand that glass is opaque to UV light, so I figure that it must look to him like the glass is tinted.

I guess I'm lucky that he doesn't try to eat the towels that have floral prints on them, although he does go crazy over anything that resembles a worm (computer cables, yarn, etc.) especially if he sees it moving around, like when his "daddy" is hooking up a computer or when "mommy" is knitting.

 

[Taterbug]

Glass is mostly transmissive to UVA, which is what is visible to reptiles and such.

 

[SHBailey]

That's a new one on me -- had to do a little googling. So I guess it's the UVB (what beardies and other reptiles need to make Vitamin D) that doesn't get through typical window glass, but maybe they don't see the difference with their "ordinary" eyes (as opposed the the parietal eye). From what little I've read, it seems like there is some idea that they can sense when they're getting enough of the right kinds of UV, and instinctively seek out what they need if it's available, but maybe the jury is still out about exactly how they do it.

Part of the reptile mystique -- just when you think you have your beardies all figured out, they surprise you...