Journal
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR
Volume 83, Issue 2, Pages 479-486Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.11.023
Keywords
dichromacy; polymorphic colour vision; primate; Saguinus spp.; sex differences; tamarin; trichromacy
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Funding
- BBSRC [98/S11498]
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The colour vision polymorphism of most New World primates is a model system to study the function of colour vision. Theories for the evolution of primate trichromacy focus on the efficient detection and selection of ripe fruits and young leaves among mature leaves, when trichromats are likely to be better than dichromats. We examined whether colour vision status affected insect capture in groups of tamarins (Saguinus spp.) in captivity and in the field. Trichromatic tamarins caught more prey than dichromats, but dichromats caught a greater proportion of camouflaged prey than trichromats. The prey caught did not differ in size between the two visual phenotypes. Thus two factors may contribute to the maintenance of the genetic polymorphism of middle- to long-wavelength photopigments in platyrrhines: the advantage in finding fruit and leaves, which supports the maintenance of the polymorphism through a heterozygote advantage, and the dichromats' exploitation of different (e.g. camouflaged) food, which results in frequency-dependent selection on the different colour vision phenotypes. (C) 2011 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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