How does the vervet monkey see?
The vervet monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops) is a mammal in the order Primates. Its eyes belong to the vision type Human-like trichromat (baseline).
Measured in this species: colour, sharpness and night vision. Measured core: measured values on at least 3 of the 6 dials. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
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What stands out
- It has three colour receptor classes, like most people.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 55.23 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- Its eyes cover about 200° around the head, with 140° seen by both eyes at once.
- It stops seeing flicker at 73.5 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks about 1.2 times slower to it.[10][11]
- Activity pattern: diurnal.
The six dials
Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.
| Dial | Value | Evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Colour receptors 3 receptor classes: 434 nm (VS/SWS (violet)), 535 nm (MWS (green)), 566 nm (LWS (long)) measured in this species | Measured | [1] |
| Sharpness | Acuity 55.23 cycles per degree median of 1 anatomical-ganglion rows (method priority rule) | Measured | [2] |
| Field of view | Binocular overlap 140° median of 1 relatives in family Cercopithecidae: Macaca mulatta | Estimated | [3] |
| Total field of view 200° median species-v1 total field of order Primates: Homo sapiens | Group default | [4] | |
| Sharp zones (foveas) | Number of foveas 1 median of 1 relatives in genus Chlorocebus: Chlorocebus sabaeus | Estimated | [5] |
| Fovea type fovea | Estimated | [5] | |
| Night vision | Activity pattern diurnal mode of 5 rows (of 5 rows): diurnal; photopic | Measured (not re-verified) | [6][1][7][8][9] |
| Rods vs cones cone-dominated nocturnal -> rod-dominated; crepuscular / cathemeral / mixed -> mixed; diurnal -> cone-dominated | Derived | [6][1][7][8][9] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 73.5 Hz median of 2 relatives in family Cercopithecidae: Macaca mulatta, Macaca nemestrina | Estimated | [10][11][12] |
Related animals
- Human same vision type
- Rhesus macaque same vision type
- Chimpanzee same vision type
- Crab-eating macaque same vision type
- Southern pig-tailed macaque same vision type
- Green monkey same vision type
More mammals: all mammals with measured vision data.
Sources
- Longcore T. 2023. A compendium of photopigment peak sensitivities and visual spectral response curves of terrestrial wildlife to guide design of outdoor nighttime lighting. Basic Appl Ecol 73:40-50. doi:10.1016/j.baae.2023.09.002. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8432720
- Veilleux CC, Kirk EC 2014. Visual acuity in mammals. Brain Behav Evol 83:43, Supplementary Table 1 (cleaned CSV in Evo-M1-Trait-Data). doi.org/10.1159/000357830
- Heesy CP 2004. On the relationship between orbit orientation and binocular visual field overlap in mammals. Anat Rec 281A:1104, Table 1. doi.org/10.1002/ar.a.20116
- species_v1:Campbell & Green 1965
- Kopania EEK, Clark NL. 2025. Mammalian retinal specializations for high acuity vision evolve in response to both foraging strategies and morphological constraints. Evolution Letters 9: qrae072. Supplementary Tables S1-S2.. doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrae072
- Wilman et al. 2014 EltonTraits 1.0, MamFuncDat.txt. doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
- Maor R, Dayan T, Ferguson-Gow H, Jones KE. 2017. Temporal niche expansion in mammals from a nocturnal ancestor after dinosaur extinction. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1:1889-1895. Supplementary Table 1. doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0366-5
- Schmitz L, Motani R. 2011. Science 332:705-708, SOM. doi.org/10.1126/science.1200043
- Moura et al. 2024. A phylogeny-informed characterisation of global tetrapod traits addresses data gaps and biases. PLoS Biol 22:e3002658. TetrapodTraits v3.0.1.. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22536349
- Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
- Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631
- Lafitte A, Sordello R, Legrand M, Nicolas V, Obein G, Reyjol Y. 2022. A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0279718. S10 File (CFF database). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279718
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?