Israeli scientists have trained goldfish to drive, in a scene out of a Dr. Seuss book

Some animals have taken their movement to the next level by operating robotic vehicles on land as part of an animal behavior experiment.

The images are by Justin Sullivan.

Imagine a goldfish swimming in a square tank on wheels as it rolls from one side of a room to the other.

It's not a scene from a movie or a book. At Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, researchers have successfully trained several goldfish to operate a robotic vehicle in order to explore whether their species is capable of navigating on land.

According to findings published in the journal, they might be.

The study suggests that navigation ability is universal rather than specific to the environment. goldfish have the cognitive ability to learn a complex task in an environment completely different to the one they evolved in. It is difficult to learn how to ride a bike or drive a car.

The scientists are looking at whether animals' innate navigation abilities are universal or restricted to their natural environments.

The study cautions that fish are not naturally equipped to explore the outdoors.

Researchers created a set of wheels under the goldfish tank that can be used to navigate around obstacles. The position of the FOV is determined by the fish's movement characteristics, location and orientation in the water tank.

The goldfish were told to drive the vehicle toward a colorful mark on the wall of the experiment room.

The fish started with lessons. The fish could drive toward the target if they got a food pellet. They did multiple 30-minute sessions to see how many times each fish reached the target, how long each drive took and the distance they traveled.

Even if they hit a wall along the way or started their drive from a different location, the fish were able to navigate to the target. They were not fooled by the decoy targets set out by the researchers. Here's what it looked like.

The findings suggest that the way space is represented in the fish brain is similar to the way it is in an aquatic environment. This shows how space is represented across environments.

Scientists say more research is needed to extend the findings to more complex scenery. Future studies should test this methodology on land animals in aquatic environments to reach more conclusive conclusions.

This was not the first study of its kind. The authors note that rodents, dogs and fish have taken the wheel in previous experiments.

The story was originally on the Morning Edition live blog.