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Behavioral evidence of color vision deficiency in a protanomalia chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

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Abstract

Although color vision deficiency is very rare among Old World monkeys and apes, one male chimpanzee (Lucky) was identified as protanomalous by genetic and physiological analyses. This study assessed behavioral phenotypes of Lucky and four chimpanzees with normal color vision by discrimination task using the modified Ishihara pseudo-isochromatic plates. Lucky could not discriminate the stimuli that the other chimpanzees could. This is the first behavioral evidence of color vision deficiency in chimpanzees.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the cooperation research program of Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (no. 14–08373) and Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research (no. 10CE2005). All experimental procedures were approved by the Animal Committee of the Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho Kumamoto Primate Park and were in accordance with Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Primates (1986, 1996, 2001) of the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University and Guidelines for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (1985) of the National Institute of Health.

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Correspondence to Akichika Mikami.

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Saito, A., Mikami, A., Hasegawa, T. et al. Behavioral evidence of color vision deficiency in a protanomalia chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Primates 44, 171–176 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-002-0017-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-002-0017-5

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