Noninvasive telemetric gaze tracking in freely moving socially housed prosimian primates

Behavioral and neurophysiological studies strongly suggest that visual orienting reflects the integration of sensory, motor, and motivational variables. Relatively little is known, however, regarding the goals that govern visual orienting of animals in their natural environments. Field observations suggest that most nonhuman primates orient to features of their natural environments whose salience is dictated by the visual demands of foraging, locomotion, and social interaction. This hypothesis is difficult to test quantitatively, however, in part because accurate gaze-tracking technology has not been employed in field studies. We here report the implementation of a new, telemetric. infrared-video gaze-tracker to measure visual orienting in freely moving, socially housed prosimian primates (Lemur catta). Two male lemurs tolerated the system at approximately 1/4 body weight, permitting successful measurements of gaze behavior during spontaneous locomotion through both terrestrial and arboreal landscapes, and in both social and asocial environments. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.