blue-eyed monkeys - (Feb/24/2006 )

Can apes, chimps, and/or gorillas have blue eyes? Has it ever been observed in the wild? What are their genes for eye-color? Being so similar to humans at the DNA level, we must have similar eye color genes - brown, green, blue (etc.?). Right? Therefore, their should be blue-eyed, green-eyed, hazel-eyed apes in the wild.


And if they cannot get these colors, why not?

Thanks - just curious after reading about humans inheritance for eye colors.

1. Yes. check out the lemur (a primate).
2. Yes. check out the lemur ( a primate). They have blue and green eyes.
3. Yes. We all have genes that decide what colour our iris and sclera will be.
4. Just like two brown eyes parents will have a hard time producing a child with blue eyes (not impossible, just really playing against the odds), the eye colour wil depend on the parents, and what nature selected for. Perhaps, in the case of apes, having brown (light/dark/amber) eyes ment they were more likely to survive than those with bright blue/green eyes. Just my idea, no expertise in this whatsoever.

An interesting paper on human and non-human primate eyes.

I would guess that blue eyes can occur across all sorts of animal species, think of Siamese cats and some dog breeds, as well as reptiles...

Vetticus, you are all over it. I liked that article; very interesting