Effects of colour vision phenotype on insect capture by a free-ranging population of white-faced capuchins, Cebus capucinus

Melin, Amanda D.; Fedigan, Linda M.; Hiramatsu, Chihiro; Sendall, Courtney L.; Kawamura, Shoji

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.07.003

Cited by 147 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Studies modelling the chromatic signal of food items eaten in the wild and experimental studies in captivity have confirmed that trichromacy is well suited to many foraging tasks involving yellow/red food against a green foliage background [13 -16,50]. However, trichromacy may be a disadvantage for cryptic food [22][23][24], which probably includes the sclerocarpic fruits whose unripe and mature seeds represent a major proportion of the uakaris' diet [28,51,52], although we emphasize that further evidence (such as colour vision modelling of food items of uakaris) is required. Trichromatic NWMs may also be better at detecting predators such as carnivores and snakes [19,20].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Highly polymorphic colour vision in a New World monkey with red facial skin, the bald uakari (Cacajao calvus)

et al. 2016

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Colour vision is highly variable in New World monkeys (NWMs). Evidence for the adaptive basis of colour vision in this group has largely centred on environmental features such as foraging benefits for differently coloured foods or predator detection, whereas selection on colour vision for sociosexual communication is an alternative hypothesis that has received little attention. The colour vision of uakaris (Cacajao) is of particular interest because these monkeys have the most dramatic red facial skin of any primate, as well as a unique fission/fusion social system and a specialist diet of seeds. Here, we investigate colour vision in a wild population of the bald uakari, C. calvus, by genotyping the X-linked opsin locus. We document the presence of a polymorphic colour vision system with an unprecedented number of functional alleles (six), including a novel allele with a predicted maximum spectral sensitivity of 555 nm. This supports the presence of strong balancing selection on different alleles at this locus. We consider different hypotheses to explain this selection. One possibility is that trichromacy functions in sexual selection, enabling females to choose high-quality males on the basis of red facial coloration. In support of this, there is some evidence that health affects facial coloration in uakaris, as well as a high prevalence of blood-borne parasitism in wild uakari populations. Alternatively, the low proportion of heterozygous female trichromats in the population may indicate selection on different dichromatic phenotypes, which might be related to cryptic food coloration. We have uncovered unexpected diversity in the last major lineage of NWMs to be assayed for colour vision, which will provide an interesting system to dissect adaptation of polymorphic trichromacy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Highly polymorphic colour vision in a New World monkey with red facial skin, the bald uakari (Cacajao calvus)

et al. 2016

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“…Such variation is also found within some species (Caine and Mundy, 2000). Recent work has explored the consequences of this variability in the sensory performance of foraging animals for their fitness in the wild Melin et al, 2007;Vogel et al, 2007). In the future, the integration of sensory biology, behavioural approaches, genetics and field ecology will hopefully allow a better understanding of the fine-scale evolution, diversification and adaptation of sensory systems.…”

Section: Detection Distances For Acoustically Oriented Predatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It stands to reason that the sensory and cognitive adaptations of animals are tightly linked to the sensory conspicuousness and cues of their potential food. In recent years, a growing field of research has started integrating sensory and behavioural approaches to better understand the role of acoustic, as well as visual, mechanical and chemical sensory cues for the performance of foraging animals and ultimately for their overall fitness (Anjum et al, 2006;Catania, 2006;Siemers and Swift, 2006;Melin et al, 2007;Vogel et al, 2007;Casas et al, 2008). Comparative studies have found sensory adaptations to closely mirror the physical challenges of species-specific foraging niches (Siemers and Schnitzler, 2004;Greiner et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cues for acoustic detection of prey: insect rustling sounds and the influence of walking substrate

Goerlitz

Greif

Siemers

2008

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYWhen insects walk, they generally produce sounds. These can reveal the walkersʼ presence and location to potential predators such as owls, bats and nocturnal primates. Additionally, predators might extract information on taxon, palatability, size or profitability from the rustling sounds. In contrast to ear morphology, hearing physiology and psychoacoustics of acoustically oriented predators, little attention has hitherto been paid to the acoustic structure and information content of prey sounds. An important element in the ecology of acoustic prey detection remained virtually unexplored: the influence of the substrate type on rustling sounds. In this study, we analysed amplitude and frequency parameters from insects walking on various natural substrates, in both Germany (Carabus beetles) and Madagascar (various beetles and cockroaches). The data show that rustling sound amplitude and frequency content depend on substrate type. On moist substrates arthropods produced less intense and less broadband rustling sounds than on dry substrates. Sound pressure level was reduced by about 6 dB, halving the detection range for the predator. For a given insect, rustling sound amplitude increased with walking speed. Finally, we found that the previously established correlation of arthropod size and rustling amplitude holds across multiple substrates. Based on these data, we provide for the first time estimates of realistic detection distances in the field. These distances range from below 1 m to over 13 m, depending on the substrate, insect mass, walking speed and background noise level. These estimates are crucial for an understanding of the foraging ecology, foraging efficiency and sensory ecology of acoustic predators.

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“…Sensory bias can play a role in determining a species' diet (Barclay and Brigham 1991;Faure and Barclay 1992;Caine and Mundy 2000;Siemers and Güttinger 2006;Raine and Chittka 2007) by altering the sensory access to food and thus constitutes a mechanism that reduces interspecific competition and facilitates coexistence (Dominy and Lucas 2001;Siemers and Schnitzler 2004;Hong and Sommer 2006). Recent work has started to explore the consequences of within and between species variability in sensory performance of foraging animals for their fitness under natural conditions (Siemers and Swift 2006;Melin et al 2007;Vogel et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implications of sensory ecology for species coexistence: biased perception links predator diversity to prey size distribution

Safi

Siemers

2009

Evol Ecol

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Inherent to sensory systems is a discrepancy between the perceived and the actual environment. We modelled prey perception in different species of echolocating bats and show that differences in sensory systems can be important for shaping the niches of animals and for structuring animal communities. We argue that sensory specialization can lower interspecific competition by making the same world appear different. We specifically raise the claim that it is important to consider the interaction of sensory bias and the distribution of (prey) resource size. Using a modeling approach we assessed the potential contribution of sensory bias for species coexistence for the example of bat echolocation. We show that even relatively small sensory differences among coexisting species can translate into significant differences in access to food resources, if prey size distribution is skewed towards small prey. Specifically, for the prey size distribution occurring most frequently in nature, differences in sensory access to resources seem large enough to relax competition and facilitate species coexistence. Interaction between sensory bias and prey size distribution in a way that enhances species coexistence may be a general phenomenon not limited to bat echolocation.

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Effects of colour vision phenotype on insect capture by a free-ranging population of white-faced capuchins, Cebus capucinus

Cited by 147 publications

References 30 publications

Highly polymorphic colour vision in a New World monkey with red facial skin, the bald uakari (Cacajao calvus)

Highly polymorphic colour vision in a New World monkey with red facial skin, the bald uakari (Cacajao calvus)

Cues for acoustic detection of prey: insect rustling sounds and the influence of walking substrate

Implications of sensory ecology for species coexistence: biased perception links predator diversity to prey size distribution

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