Color Vision in the Ring-Tailed Lemur (Lemur catta)

Abstract

Behavioral discrimination tests were used to examine spectral sensitivity and color vision in a pair of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta). Sensitivity tests revealed the presence of a Purkinje shift and a phototopic visual system. As measured at increment-threshold, the phototopic spectral sensitivity function for the lemur has multiple peaks (at ca. 440-460, 540, and 620 nm). In color vision tests lemurs behave trichromatically in that (a) they show no evdience for a neutral point in the spectral range of 470-510 nm, and (b) they set a unique Rayleigh match (540 nm + 645 nm = 570 nm). Tests of wavelength and colorimetric purity discrimination reveal that although this prosimian has color vision, it is not an acute capacity-thresholds for these color discriminations were consistently much higher for lemurs than for normal human trichromats tested in the same situation.