Colour vision of mammals in tropical forest: ecological meanings of conspicuous pelage colour

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25440247
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute
• Principal Investigator: Tamura Noriko (林典子) 国立研究開発法人 森林総合研究所, 多摩森林科学園, チーム長 (20222127)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 毛色多型 / 色覚認知 / Callosciurus finlaysonii / 熱帯林 / 同種認識

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Finlayson’s squirrel, Callosciurus finlaysonii, is distributed in lowland forests throughout South-East Asia. Its pelage colour is conspicuous red, black and white. To understand the ecological meaning of the pelage coloration, we measured and compared across different seasons, ages, body weight and sexes. The color characteristics of the pelages did not differ between the sexes, ages, body weight and seasons, which indicate that the unusual pelage colour cannot be explained as social signals. Colour vision tests revealed that C. finlaysonii can discriminate the colour of conspecific white, black, and red pelages from the colour of sympatric other species, which indicate that the pelage colour could be useful clues for species recognition.

Free Research Field

生物学