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Chimpanzee diets

Posted by Nathan on August 5, 2012 at 4:28pm in Science

Here's an article from Scientific American on a 2011 paper about chimp diets, unfortunately the paper itself is behind a paywall.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/08/02/how-to-eat-like-a-chimpanzee/

Seems like chimps are big fans of figs and monomeals, and whilst most groups eat some meat, some eat only plants.

I think it's interesting that even if surrounded by abundant fruit, chimps still seem to go out of their way to eat a good variety of leaves and stems. The article also mentions that some eat dirt/bark etc. so presumably they don't just follow their taste buds.

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  • PK August 6, 2012 at 8:09am

    @NathanB,

    Thanks for sharing.  Primate diets and habits fascinate me and I believe many answers to our own natural health issues can be found in the study of primates.  

    Peace, PK

  • Nathan August 5, 2012 at 4:36pm

    PS. just noticed the article's by Rob Dunn who wrote a great (if over-long) book called 'the wild life of our bodies', about how modern living has disrupted our evolutionary relationship with parasites, bacteria etc. leading to health problems. Worth reading if you can find a copy.

    http://www.robrdunn.com/2011/01/the-wild-life-of-our-bodies-2/

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