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| A true lemur eating an orange |
Most primates, including ourselves, are very similar in diet in that we are omnivores, meaning we eat both plants and other animals. We even have similar teeth that have evolved to eating a wider variety of foods than other mammals. However, coming from different environments means each species of primate has access to different sources of food, and being different species means that diets will vary just as greatly as habitats. Between prosimians, New and Old World monkeys, and lesser and great apes, one can find a great variety of dietary behaviors.
Prosimians (Strepsirhini) are found exclusively on Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. To represent this category, true lemurs (Lemuridae) spend a majority of their time in the trees of dense, tropical forests, but also spend a bit of time on the ground. Lemurs generally eat fruit and leaves that vary based on where they are in their habitat, which makes sense as they have adapted to the abundance of fruit and other plant life in their environment.
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| Capuchin monkeys sharing a large insect |
The New World monkeys (Platyrrhini) almost exclusively dwell in the trees of forest environments, including rainforests and mountain forests, especially those of Brazil and other parts of Latin America. In particular, capuchin monkeys (Cebinae) are similar to lemurs in that they spend their time almost exclusively in trees, traversing the ground only to find water. However they differ in that they are omnivores instead of herbivores, subsisting off of flowers, fruit, other vegetation, nuts, insects and occasionally other small prey. All parts of their diet can be found throughout their habitats during the day, so they likely learned what to eat over time. Given that capuchin monkeys are very agile, they may have adapted this trait to be able to catch their prey, such as small mice, crabs, or lizards.
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| A baboon eating an antelope |
Old World monkeys (Cercopithecidae) are extremely adaptable and inhabit a wide variety of environments in mainly Central Africa, including not only the tropical forests of New World monkeys and prosimians, but also semiarid climates of grasslands or savannas. They sleep in trees or on cliff faces for protection, and descend to forage for food. In particular, baboons (Papio) and other Old World monkeys are omnivorous like their New World cousins, except that their diet consists of much more meat since they're generally bigger in size. Baboons eat from a variety of plants, like grass, fruits, seeds, sap, leaves and the like, while also eating insects and hunting for prey such as fish, shellfish, birds, and even small mammals (i.e. hares, small antelopes, other monkeys). The environment of a baboon is generally flat savannas as well as the trees of the tropical forests in Africa, so it's a wide enough expanse to have such varied prey. Baboons have adapted to what prey and vegetation were around them; since their habitat is mainly on the ground instead of in trees, their prey would need to be as well.
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| A gibbon eating a fruit with its infant |
The lesser apes (Hylobatidae), in particular gibbons, live in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and are arboreal primates, rarely descending to the forest floor. Given that they stay mainly in the treetops, gibbons are also great at moving through the trees by swinging under branches, also known as brachiation. This adaptation allows gibbons to keep themselves safe at the top of the rainforests, not having to worry about predators that may be below. Gibbons are omnivores, and since they live high in trees, they have adapted to eat what they can find in their habitat, living off of such foods as fruits, leaves, tree bark, insects, bird eggs and small birds.
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| A chimpanzee eating a tropical fruit |
Great apes (Hominidae), like chimpanzees (Pan troglodyte), originate almost exclusively from Africa. The natural habitat of chimpanzees includes both tropical forests and the arid savannas, similar to baboons except that chimps generally only stay in the savannas to get from one forest to the next. They are omnivores who mainly eat fruits and plants, but also eat insects, eggs, and other meat. Because they spend just as much time in trees as they do on the ground, their adaptation to different foods is a much wider range than any other primate (besides humans), and this ability allows chimps to live in much more varied environments than other primates.
The influence of the environment on primates definitely allows for the expression of behavioral dietary traits. If a monkey lives more arboreally, their diet will likely consist of more fruits and vegetation, and maybe the insects and birds that also inhabit the treetops. If a primate lives nearer to the ground, it has more options and will therefore eat more varied foods, including not only fruits and vegetation, but also animals that only tread the ground instead of the trees. The environment also plays a role in the physical traits primates develop, as in the brachiation of gibbons. Gibbons brachiate in order to go through the forest, and this quality wouldn't have lingered through evolution if they didn't have an environmental need for it. The environment stimulates natural selection in that it encourages certain physical traits and behaviors, while discouraging or even neglecting others.
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"However, coming from different environments means each species of primate has access to different sources of food, and being different species means that diets will vary just as greatly as habitats."
ReplyDeleteGreat topic sentence.
Good, thorough discussion of each primate, their diet and how the environment influences that diet. I appreciate how you considered not just the availability of food resources but also how other factors such as predation would limit their access to food types. Very good job making those connections. You also included discussions on how the need for water was addressed, which is a very important part of the diet.
Well done.
You did a great job going into depth on this assignment. I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteYour post was very informative and easy to follow! I really liked how detailed each section was and how clear the information was given. I found it really interesting that New World Monkeys, or spider monkeys, eat and digest crabs. I didn't find this in any of my research so it was cool to learn something so new! Great job!
ReplyDeleteI actually found diet interesting because most primates live off a mostly vegetarian diet with some meat here and there. So because we are primates ourselves I just can't help to think when did we make a switch to a lot of meat diet and how this will affect us in the long run. Most primates eat a lot of fruit but now I am sure many humans don't. So I thought that was interesting because I used to go days without fruit but meat was always primary in my diet, and I know many people who have meat with every meat, so i wonder why that switch happened.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, I've actually been discussing a similar topic with one of my other professors about the 'switch to meat'. What I've learned recently is that it's actual possible to have TOO MUCH protein in one's diet. Humans, oddly enough, only need about 3% of their entire diet to be protein (though it's 5% when we're infants and toddlers). So we really are supposed to have more fruits and vegetables, but most of our society is kind of ingrained to believe that we need meat, and since we're used to it, we crave it.
DeleteBut I think in the past, the reason we didn't have as much meat is because we were more like scavengers, taking the meat off animals that bigger animals had already killed, especially since we didn't have the muscles, teeth, or claws to attack animals or defend ourselves. So we were more like our primate cousins than we might think, since we were more like herbivores in the past, getting meat when we could, but not relying on it as our main source of food. The shift might've occurred after the advent of tools and weapons, since we now had a means to not only protect ourselves, but provide access to another type of resource.
On a societal level though, I think it makes a big difference that the livestock industry puts so much money into getting us to eat their products, you know? Most of the cows, pigs, chickens and other meat that are on the market aren't entirely healthy to eat, but the farmers get more for their money. It's such a lucrative industry that I think that's why the shift has lasted until today.
(Oops this turned into a really long post lol, I'm just fairly passionate about the subject, so I'll just end here :P)