The behavioral tests used lighted panels of different colors. The squirrels learned that a food pellet was released when they touched the panel displaying a target color.
The researchers concluded that the familiar grey tree squirrels, Sciurus carolinensis, have a dichromatic color vision; this means squirrels do have color vision, but they cannot see the difference between the green leaves of summer and the red leaves of fall, which means that squirrels are color blind.
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