Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Evolutionary Biology of Ape and Monkey Feeding and Nutrition

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of Paleoanthropology

Abstract

Like all animals, primates must garner sufficient energy and nutrients from their habitat to accomplish other biological imperatives such as mating and avoiding predators. The order Primates exhibits an extraordinary diversity of feeding and foraging-related adaptations to meet this imperative, some of which are shared with other taxa, others of which are unique to primates. In this chapter, I explore the evolutionary underpinnings of these adaptations as well as evaluate their ecological implications. I first discuss several unique aspects of primate feeding biology, including the evolution of large brains, trichromatic color vision, and tool use. I then move on to evaluate the fundamental problems of plant fiber and chemical defenses and conclude by arguing that primate adaptations for fermenting fiber and detoxifying plant chemical defenses have implications for primate species adaptations, abundance, and richness since the Miocene. Because of the implications for understanding adaptations in our own lineage, in this latter section I pay particular attention to Catarrhini of Africa; I employ a strongly comparative approach and evaluate hominoid feeding biology in light of what we know about Cercopithecoidea.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 949.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 1,099.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aiello CC, Wheeler P (1995) The expensive-tissue hypothesis: the brain and digestive system in human and primate evolution. Curr Anthropol 36:199–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alexander RM (1993) The relative merits of foregut and hindgut fermentation. J Zool Lond 231:391–401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altmann SA (1998) Foraging for survival. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Altmann SA (2009) Fallback foods, eclectic omnivores, and the packaging problem. Am J Phys Anthropol 140:615–629

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews P (1981) Species diversity and diet in monkeys and apes during the Miocene. In: Stringer CB (ed) Aspects of human evolution. Taylor and Francis, London, pp 25–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Andrews P, Van Couvering JAH (1975) Paleoenvironments in the East African Miocene. Contrib Primatol 5:62–103

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barrickman NL, Bastian ML, Isler K, van Schaik CP (2008) Life history costs and benefits of encephalization: a comparative test using data from long-term studies of primates in the wild. J Hum Evol 54:568–590

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barton RA (2000) Primate brain evolution: cognitive demands of foraging or of social life? In: Boinski S, Garber PA (eds) On the move: how and why animals travel in groups. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck BB (1980) Animal tool behavior: the use and manufacture of tools by animals. Garland STPM Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Beeson M (1989) Seasonal dietary stress in a forest monkey (Cercopithecus mitis). Oecologia 78:565–570

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell RHV (1971) A grazing ecosystem in the Serengeti. Sci Am 225:86–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaine K, Lambert JE (2012) Digestive ecology of Allenopithecus and Cercopithecus: interpreting the evolution of long retention times in Cercopithecinae. Integr Zool 7:183–191

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blaxter KL (1962) The energy metabolism of ruminants. Hutchison and Company, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Boinski S, Treves A, Chapman CA (2000) A critical evaluation of the influence of predators on primates: effects on group travel. In: Boinski S, Garber PA (eds) On the move: how and why animals travel in groups. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 491–518

    Google Scholar 

  • Byrne R, Whiten A (1988) Machiavellian intelligence: social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes and humans. Clarendon, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Cartmill M (1992) New views on primate origins. Evol Anthropol 1:105–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caton J (1999) Digestive strategy of the Asian colobine genus Trachypithecus. Primates 40:311–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Changizi MA, Zhang Q, Shimojo S (2006) Bare skin, blood and the evolution of primate colour vision. Biol Lett 2:217–221

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman CA (1990) Ecological constraints on group size in three species of Neotropical primates. Folia Primatol 55:1–9

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman CA, Chapman LJ (2002) Constraints on group size in red colobus and red-tailed guenons: examining the generality of the ecological constraints model. Int J Primatol 21:565–585

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman CA, Lambert JE (2000) Habitat alteration and the conservation of African primates: a case study of the Kibale National Park, Uganda. Am J Primatol 50:169–185

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman CA, Wrangham RW, Chapman LJ (1995) Ecological constraints on group sizes: an analysis of spider monkey and chimpanzee subgroups. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 36:59–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman CA, Gautier-Hion A, Oates JF, Onderdonk D (1999) African primate communities: determinants of structure and threats to survival. In: Fleagle JG, Janson C, Reed KE (eds) Primate communities. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 1–37

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman CA, Chapman LJ, Gautier-Hion A, Lambert JE, Rode K, Tutin CEG, White LJT (2002) Variation in the diet of Cercopithecus monkeys: differences within forests, among forests, and across species. In: Glenn M, Cords M (eds) The guenons: diversity and adaptation in African monkeys. Kluwer Academic, New York, pp 319–344

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapman CA, Rothman JM, Lambert JE (2013) Food as a selective force in primates. In: Mitani JC, Call J, Kappeler PM, Palombit RA, Silk JB (eds) The evolution of primate societies. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 149–168

    Google Scholar 

  • Chivers DJ, Hladik CM (1980) Morphology of the gastrointestinal tract in primates: comparisons with other mammals in relation to diet. J Morphol 116:337–386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chivers DJ, Wood BA, Bilsborough A (1984) Food acquisition and processing in primates. Plenum Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Clutton-Brock TH (1977) Primate ecology. Academic, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Conklin-Brittain NL, Wrangham RW, Hunt RD (1998) Dietary response of chimpanzees and cercopithecines to seasonal variation in fruit abundance. II. Macronutrients. Int J Primatol 1998:971–998

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cords M (1986) Interspecific and intraspecific variation in diet of two forest guenons Cercopithecus ascanius and C. mitis. J Anim Ecol 55:811–827

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cork SJ, Foley WJ (1991) Digestive and metabolic strategies of arboreal folivores in relation to chemical defenses in temperate and tropical forests. In: Palo RT, Robbins CT (eds) Plant defenses against mammalian herbivory. CRC Prest, Boca Raton, pp 133–166

    Google Scholar 

  • Cowlishaw G, Dunbar R (2000) Primate conservation biology. University of Chicago, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • de Moura AC, Lee PC (2004) Capuchin stone tool use in Caatinga dray forest. Science 306:1909

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Deaner RO, Isler K, Burkart J, van Schaik CP (2007) Overall brain size, and not encephalization quotient, best predicts cognitive ability across non-human primates. Brain Behav Evol 70:115–124

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dominy N (2004) Color as an indicator of food quality to anthropoid primates: ecological evidence and an evolutionary scenario. In: Ross C, Kay RF (eds) Anthropoid origins: new visions. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York, pp 615–644

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Dominy N, Lucas P (2001) Ecological importance of trichromatic vision to primates. Nature 410:363–366

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dominy N, Ross CF, Smith TD (2004) Evolution of the special senses in primates: past, present, and future. Anat Rec Part A 281A:1078–1082

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar RIM (1988) Primate social systems. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar RIM (1992) Neocortex size as a constraint on group size in primates. J Hum Evol 20:469–493

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar RIM, Shultz S (2007) Understanding primate brain evolution. Phil Trans R Soc B 362:649–658

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Feeny P (1976) Plant apparency and chemical defense. Recent Adv Phytochem 10:1–40

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez AA, Morris MR (2007) Sexual selection and trichromatic color vision in primates: statistical support for the pre-existing bias hypothesis. Am Nat 170:10–20

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fleagle JG (2013) Primate adaptation and evolution, 3rd edn. Academic, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fonseca-Azevedo K, Herculano-Houzel S (2012) Metabolic constraint imposes tradeoff between body size and number of brain neurons in human evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109:18571–18576

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fragaszy D, Izar P, Visalbergh E, Ottoni EB, de Oliveira MG (2004) Wild capuchin monkeys (Cebus libidinosus) use anvils and stone pounding tools. Am J Primatol 64:359–366

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frankie GW, Baker HG, Opler PA (1974) Comparative phenological studies of trees in tropical wet and dry forests in the lowlands of Costa Rica. Int J Ecol 62:881–919

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeland WJ (1991) Plant secondary metabolites: biochemical coevolution with herbivores. In: Palo RT, Robbins CT (eds) Plant defenses against mammalian herbivory. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 61–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeland WJ, Janzen DH (1974) Strategies in herbivory by mammals: the role of plant secondary compounds. Am Nat 108:269–289

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Futuyma DJ (1979) Evolutionary biology. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland

    Google Scholar 

  • Garber PA (1987) Foraging strategies among living primates. Annu Rev Anthropol 16:339–364

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garber PA (2000) Evidence for the use of spatial, temporal, and social information by primate foragers. In: Boinski S, Garber PA (eds) On the move: how and why animals travel in groups. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 261–298

    Google Scholar 

  • Garber PA (2004) New perspectives in primate cognitive ecology. Am J Primatol 62:133–138

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gartlan JS, McKey DB, Waterman PG, Mbi CN, Struhsaker TT (1980) A comparative study of the chemistry of two African rain forests. Biochem Syst Ecol 8:401–422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaulin SJC (1979) A Jarman/Bell model of primate feeding niches. Hum Ecol 7:1–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gautier-Hion A (1988) The diet and dietary habits of forest guenons. In: Gautier-Hion A, Bourliere F, Gautier J-P (eds) A primate radiation: evolutionary biology of the African guenons. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 257–283

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert LE (1980) Food web organizations and conservation of neotropical diversity. In: Soule ME, Wilkox BA (eds) Conservation biology. Sinauer, Sunderland, pp 11–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Glander KE (1978) Howling monkey feeding behavior and plant secondary compounds: a study of strategies. In: Montgomery GG (ed) The ecology of arboreal folivores. Smithsonian Press, Washington, DC, pp 231–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodall J (1986) The chimpanzees of Gombe. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould SJ, Vrba ES (1982) Exaptation: a missing term in the science of form. Paleobiology 8:4–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Harborne JB (1994) Introduction to ecological biochemistry. Academic, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill WCO (1958) Pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine and large intestine: form and position. In: Hofer H, Schultz AH, Starck D (eds) Primatologica: handbook of primatology III. Basel, New York, pp 139–207

    Google Scholar 

  • Iason GR, Dicke M, Hartley SE (2013) The ecology of plant secondary metabolites: from genes to global processes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Isbell LA (1991) Contest and scramble competition: patterns of female aggression and ranging behavior among primates. Behav Ecol 2:143–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isbell LA (2006) Snakes as agents of evolutionary changes in primate brains. J Hum Evol 15:1–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isler K, van Schaik CP (2006) Metabolic costs of brain size evolution. Biol Lett 22:557–560

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jablonski NG (2002) Fossil Old World monkeys: the late Neogene radiation. In: Hartwig WC (ed) The primate fossil record. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 255–300

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs GH (1996) Variations in primate color vision: mechanisms and utility. Evol Anthropol 3:196–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs GH (2008) Primate color vision: a comparative perspective. Science 25:619–633

    Google Scholar 

  • Janson CH (1992) Evolutionary ecology of primate social structure. In: Smith EA, Winterhalder B (eds) Evolutionary ecology and human behavior. Aldine de Gruyter, New York, pp 95–130

    Google Scholar 

  • Janson CH, Chapman CA (1999) Resources and primate community structure. In: Fleagle JG, Janson C, Reed KE (eds) Primate communities. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 237–260

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Janson CH, Goldsmith ML (1995) Predicting group size in primates: foraging costs and predation risks. Behav Ecol 6:326–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janson CH, van Schaik CP (1988) Recognizing the many faces of primate food competition: methods. Behaviour 105:165–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janzen DH (1967) Synchronization of sexual reproduction of trees within the dry season in Central America. Evolution 21:620–637

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janzen DH (1978) Complications in interpreting the chemical defenses of trees against tropical arboreal plant-eating vertebrates. In: Montgomery GG (ed) The ecology of arboreal folivores. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp 73–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Janzen DH (1980) When is it coevolution? Evolution 34:611–612

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jarman PJ (1974) The social organization of antelope in relation to their ecology. Behaviour 58:215–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jerison HJ (1973) Evolution of the brain and intelligence. Academic, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Johns T (1996) The origins of human diet and medicine. University of Arizona Press, Tucson

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplin BA, Munyaligoga V, Moermond TC (1998) The influence of temporal changes in fruit availability on diet composition and seed handling in blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis doggetti). Biotropica 30:56–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kay RNB (1985) Comparative studies of food propulsion in ruminants. In: Ooms LAA, Degryse AD, van Miert ASJAM (eds) Physiological and pharmacological aspects of the reticulo-rumen. Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, pp 155–170

    Google Scholar 

  • Kay RNB, Davies AG (1994) Digestive physiology. In: Davies AG, Oates JF (eds) Colobine monkeys: their ecology, behavior and evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 229–259

    Google Scholar 

  • Keeler RF, van Kampen KA, James LF (1978) Effects of poisonous plants on livestock. Academic, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelley J (1992) Evolution of apes. In: Jones S, Martin R, Pilbeam D (eds) The Cambridge encyclopedia of human evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 223–230

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinzey WG (1978) Feeding behaviour and molar features in two species of titi monkey. In: Chivers DJ, Herbert J (eds) Recent advances in primatology, vol 1, Behaviour. Academic, New York, pp 372–375

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleiber M (1961) The fire of life: an introduction to animal energetics. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Koenig A (2002) Competition for resources and its behavioral consequences among female primates. Int J Primatol 23:759–783

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE (1997) Digestive strategies, fruit processing, and seed dispersal in the chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and redtail monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius) of Kibale National Park, Uganda. PhD dissertation, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

    Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE (1998) Primate digestion: interactions among anatomy, physiology, and feeding ecology. Evol Anthropol 7(1):8–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE (2000) Urine drinking in wild Cercopithecus ascanius: evidence of nitrogen balancing? Afr J Ecol 389(4):360–363

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE (2001) Red-tailed guenons (Cercopithecus ascanius) and Strychnos mitis: evidence for plant benefits beyond seed dispersal. Int J Primatol 22(2):189–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE (2002a) Exploring the link between animal frugivory and plant strategies: the case of primate fruit-processing and post-dispersal seed fate. In: Levey DJ, Silva WR, Galetti M (eds) Frugivory and seed dispersal and frugivory: ecology, evolution and conservation. CABI Publishing, Wallingford Oxfordshire, pp 365–379

    Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE (2002b) Resource switching in guenons: a community analysis of dietary flexibility. In: Glenn M, Cords M (eds) The guenons: diversity and adaptation in African monkeys. Kluwer Academic, New York, pp 303–317

    Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE (2002c) Digestive retention times in forest guenons with reference to chimpanzees. Int J Primatol 26(6):1169–1185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE (2005) Competition, predation and the evolution of the cercopithecine cheek pouch: the case of Cercopithecus and Lophocebus. Am J Phys Anthropol 126:183–192

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE (2007) Seasonality, fallback strategies, and natural selection: a chimpanzee versus cercopithecoid model for interpreting the evolution of hominin diet. In: Ungar P (ed) Evolution of human diet: the known, the unknown, and the unknowable. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp 324–343

    Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE (2009) Primate fallback strategies as adaptive phenotypic plasticity: scale, process, and pattern. Am J Phys Anthropol 140:759–766

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE (2011) Primate nutritional ecology: feeding biology and diet at ecological and evolutionary scales. In: Campbell C, Fuentes A, MacKinnon KC, Panger M, Bearder S, Stumpf R (eds) Primates in perspective, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 512–522

    Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE, Chapman CA (2005) The fate of primate dispersed seeds: deposition pattern, dispersal distance, and implications for conservation. In: Forget P-M, Lambert JE, Hulme P, Vander Wall S (eds) Seed fate: predation, dispersal and seedling establishment. CABI Press, Wallingford Oxfordshire, pp 137–150

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE, Fellner V (2012) In vitro fermentation of dietary carbohydrates in African apes and monkeys: preliminary results on digestive and microbial strategy. Int J Primatol 33:263–281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE, Garber PA (1998) Evolutionary and ecological implications of primate seed dispersal. Am J Primatol 45:9–28

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert JE, Chapman CA, Wrangham RW, Conklin-Brittain NL (2004) The hardness of mangabey and guenon foods: implications for the critical function of enamel thickness in exploiting fallback foods. Am J Phys Anth 125:363–368

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Le Gros Clark WE (1959) The antecedents of man. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonard WR (2000) Human nutritional evolution. In: Stinson S, Bogin B, Huss-Ashmore R, O’Rourke D (eds) Human biology: an evolutionary and biocultural approach. Wiley-Liss, New York, pp 295–343

    Google Scholar 

  • Levin DA (1971) Plant phenolics: an ecological perspective. Am Nat 105:157–181

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Levin DA (1976) Alkaloid-bearing plants: an ecological perspective. Am Nat 110:261–284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewin R, Foley RA (2002) Principles of human evolution. Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucas PW, Darvell BW, Lee PKD, Yuen TDB, Choong MF (1998) Colour cues for leaf food selection by long-tailed macaques (Macaca fasicularis) with a new suggestion for the evolution of trichromatic colour vision. Folia Primatol 69:139–152

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maisels F (1993) Gut passage rate in guenons and mangabeys: another indicator of a flexible dietary niche? Folia Primatol 61:35–37

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall AJ, Wrangham RW (2007) Evolutionary consequences of fallback foods. Int J Primatol 28:1219–1235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall AJ, Byoko CM, Feilen KL, Leighton M (2009) Defining fallback foods and assessing their importance in primate ecology and evolution. Am J Phys Anthropol 140:603–614

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Martin RD (1990) Primate origins and evolution: a phylogenetic reconstruction. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin RD (1996) Scaling of the mammalian brain: the maternal energy hypothesis. News Physiol Sci 11:149–156

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin RD (1998) Comparative aspects of human brain evolution: scaling, energy costs and confounding variables. In: Jablonski NG, Aiello LC (eds) The origin and diversification of language. University of California Press, San Francisco, pp 35–68

    Google Scholar 

  • McGrew WC (1992) Chimpanzee material culture: implications for human evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McGrew WC, Marchant LF (1992) Chimpanzees, tools, and termites: hand preference or handedness? Curr Anthropol 33:114–119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKey DB (1974) Adaptive patterns in alkaloid physiology. Am Nat 108:305–320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKey DB, Waterman PG, Gartlan JS, Struhsaker TT (1978) Phenolic content of vegetation in two African rain forests: ecological implications. Science 202:61–64

    Google Scholar 

  • McNab BK, Eisenberg JF (1989) Brain size and its relation to the rate of metabolism in mammals. Am Nat 133:157–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melin AD, Matsushita Y, Moritz GL, Dominy NJ, Kawamura S (2013) Inferred L/M cone opsin polymorphism of ancestral tarsiers sheds dim light on the origin of anthropoid primates. Proc Roy Soc B Biol Sci 280:1471–2954

    Google Scholar 

  • Milton K (1980) The foraging strategy of howler monkeys: a study in primate economics. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Milton K (1981) Food choice and digestive strategies of two sympatric primate species. Am Nat 117:476–495

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milton K (1984) The role of food processing factors in primate food choice. In: Rodman PS, Cant JGH (eds) Adaptations for foraging in nonhuman primates: contributions to an organismal biology of prosimians, monkeys and apes. Columbia University Press, New York, pp 249–279

    Google Scholar 

  • Milton K (1986) Digestive physiology in primates. News Physiol Sci 1:76–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Milton K (1988) Foraging behaviour and the evolution of primate intelligence. In: Byrne R, Whiten A (eds) Machiavellian intelligence: social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes and humans. Clarendon, Oxford, pp 285–308

    Google Scholar 

  • Milton K (1993) Diet and primate evolution. Sci Am 269:86–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Milton K (1999) A hypothesis to explain the role of meat-eating in human evolution. Evol Anthropol 8:11–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milton K, Demment MW (1988) Digestion and passage kinetics of chimpanzees fed high and lower fiber diets and comparison with human data. J Nutr 118:1082–1088

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morley RJ (2000) Origin and evolution of tropical rain forests. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Napier J (1970) Paleoecology and catarrhine evolution. In: Napier JR, Napier PH (eds) Old World monkeys: evolution, systematics, and behavior. Academic, New York, pp 53–95

    Google Scholar 

  • Napier JR, Napier PH (1985) The natural history of the primates. British Museum, London

    Google Scholar 

  • National Research Council (2003) Nutrient requirements of nonhuman primates. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Navarrete A, van Schaik CP, Isler K (2011) Energetics and the evolution of human brain size. Nature 480:91–94

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nishihara T (1995) Feeding ecology of western lowland gorillas in the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, Congo. Primates 36:151–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oates JF (1977) The guereza and its food. In: Clutton-Brock TH (ed) Primate ecology. Academic, London, pp 275–321

    Google Scholar 

  • Oates JF (1987) Food distribution and foraging behavior. In: Smuts BB, Cheyney DL, Seyfarth RM, Wrangham RW, Struhsaker TT (eds) Primate societies. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 197–209

    Google Scholar 

  • Oftedal OT, Allen AE (1996) The feeding and nutrition of omnivores with emphasis on primates. In: Kleiman DG, Allen ME, Thompson KV, Lumpkin S, Harris H (eds) Wild mammals in captivity: principles and techniques. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 148–157

    Google Scholar 

  • Panger MA (1998) Object use in free-ranging white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) in Costa Rica. Am J Phys Anthropol 11:235–245

    Google Scholar 

  • Panger MA (2011) Tool use and cognition in primates. In: Campbell C, Fuentes A, MacKinnon KC, Panger M, Bearder S, Stumpf R (eds) Primates in perspective, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 600–622

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker ST, Gibson KR (1977) Object manipulation, tool use and sensorimotor intelligence as feeding adaptations in great apes and cebus monkeys. J Hum Evol 6:623–641

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parra R (1978) Comparison of foregut and hindgut fermentation in herbivores. In: Montgomery GG (ed) The ecology of arboreal folivores. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp 205–222

    Google Scholar 

  • Plumptre AJ, Reynolds V (1995) The effect of selective logging on the primate populations in the Budongo Reserve, Uganda. J Appl Ecol 31:631–641

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Polyak S (1957) The vertebrate visual system. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Potts R (1996) Humanity’s descent: the consequences of ecological instability. Avon, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Potts R (2004) Paleoenvironmental basis of cognitive evolution in great apes. Am J Primatol 62:209–228

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pruetz JD (2007) Evidence of cave use by savanna chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) at Fongoli, Senegal: implications for thermoregulatory behavior. Primates 48:316–319

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pruetz JD, Bertolani P (2007) Savanna chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, hunt with tools. Curr Biol 17:412–417

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pruetz JD, LaDuke TC (2009) Brief communication: reaction to fire by savanna chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) at Fongoli, Senegal: conceptualization of “fire behavior” and the case for a chimpanzee model. Am J Phys Anthropol 141:646–650

    Google Scholar 

  • Purvis A, Nee S, Harvey PH (1995) Macroevolutionary inferences from primate phylogeny. Proc Roy Soc Lond B 260:329–333

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Radinsky LB (1977) Early primate brains: facts and fiction. J Hum Evol 6:79–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Regan BC, Julliot C, Simmen B, Vienot F, Charles-Dominique P, Mollen JD (1998) Frugivory and colour vision in Alouatta seniculus, a trichromatic platyrrhine monkey. Vis Res 38:3321–3327

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Remis MJ (2000) Initial studies on the contributions of body size and gastrointestinal times to dietary flexibility among gorillas. Am J Phys Anthropol 112:171–180

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Remis MJ, Dierenfeld ES, Mowry CB, Carroll RW (2001) Nutritional aspects of western lowland gorilla diet during seasons of fruit scarcity at Bai Hokou, Central African Republic. Int J Primatol 22:807–836

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richard AF, Goldstein SJ, Dewar RE (1989) Weed macaques: the evolutionary implications of macaque feeding ecology. Int J Primatol 10:569–594

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ridley HN (1894) On the dispersal of seeds by mammals. J Straits Br R Asiat Soc 25:11–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Ripley S (1979) Environmental grain, niche diversification, and positional behavior in primates: an evolutionary hypothesis. In: Morbeck ME, Preuschoft H, Gomberg N (eds) Environment, behavior, and morphology: dynamic interactions in primates. Gustav Fischer, New York, pp 37–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson BW, Wilson DS (1998) Optimal foraging, specialization, and a solution to Liem’s paradox. Am Nat 151:223–235

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rodman PS, Cant JGH (1984) Adaptations for foraging in nonhuman primates: contributions to an organismal biology of prosimians, monkeys, and apes. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers EM, Abernethy K, Bermejo M, Cipolletta C, Doran D, McFarland K, Nishihara T, Remis M, Tutin CEG (2004) Western gorilla diet: a synthesis from six sites. Am J Primatol 64:173–192

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberger AL (1992) Evolution of feeding niches in New World monkeys. Am J Phys Anthropol 88:525–562

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenthal GA, Janzen DH (1979) Herbivores: their interactions with secondary metabolites. Academic, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross CF (2000) Into the light: the origin of Anthropoidea. Annu Rev Anthropol 29:147–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rothman JM, van Soest PJ, Pell AN (2006) Decaying wood is a sodium source for mountain gorillas. Biol Lett 2:321–324

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rudran R (1978) Socioecology of the blue monkeys of the Kibale Forest, Uganda, vol 249, Smithsonian contributions to zoology. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Sailer LD, Gaulin SJC, Boster JS, Kurland JA (1985) Measuring the relationship between dietary quality and body size in primates. Primates 26:14–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt-Nielsen K (1984) Scaling: why is animal size so important? Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt-Nielsen K (1997) Animal physiology: adaptation and environment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharon M (1980) Carbohydrates. Sci Am 243:90–116

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Snaith TV, Chapman CA (2007) Primate group size and interpreting socioecological models: do folivores really play by different rules? Evol Anth 16:94–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snodderley DM (1979) Visual discriminations encountered in food foraging by a neotropical primate. In: Burtt EH (ed) The behavioral significance of color. Garland Press/STPM Press, New York, pp 237–279

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanford CB, Bunn HT (2001) Meat-eating and human evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterck EHM, Watts DP, van Schaik CP (1997) The evolution of female social relationships in nonhuman primates. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 41:291–309

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strier KB (2010) Primate behavioral ecology, 4th edn. Allyn and Bacon, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Struhsaker TT (1978) Food habits of five monkey species in the Kibale Forest, Uganda. In: Chivers DJ, Herbert J (eds) Recent advances in primatology, vol 2, Conservation. Academic, London, pp 87–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Struhsaker TT (1981) Polyspecific associations among tropical rain-forest primates. Z Tierpsychol 57:268–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sugiyama Y (1997) Social tradition and the use of tool-composites by wild chimpanzees. Evol Anthropol 6:23–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor AB, van Schaik CP (2007) Variation in brain size and ecology in Pongo. Journal of Human Evolution 52:59–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Teaford MF, Ungar PS (2000) Diet and the evolution of the earliest human ancestors. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97:13506–13511

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Temerin LA, Cant JGH (1983) The evolutionary divergence of Old World monkeys and apes. Am Nat 122:355–351

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Terborgh J (1986) Keystone plant resources in the topical forest. In: Soule ME (ed) Conservation biology. Sinauer, Sunderland, pp 330–344

    Google Scholar 

  • Terborgh J, Janson CH (1986) The socioecology of primate groups. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 17:111–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tortora GJ, Anagnostakos NP (1987) Principles of physiology. Harper and Row, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Treves A, Chapman CA (1996) Conspecific threat, predation avoidance, and resource defense: implications for grouping in langurs. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 39:43–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ungar PS, Kay RF (1995) The dietary adaptations of European Miocene catarrhines. Proc Natl Acad Sci 92:5479–5481

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van Schaik CP (1989) The ecology of social relationships amongst female primates. In: Standen V, Foley RA (eds) Comparative socioecology: the behavioral ecology of humans and other mammals. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, pp 195–218

    Google Scholar 

  • van Schaik CP, Fox EA (1996) Manufacture and use of tools in wild Sumatran orangutans. Naturwissenschaften 83:186–188

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van Schaik CP, Kappeler PM (1993) Life history, activity period and lemur social systems. In: Kappeler PM, Ganzhorn JU (eds) Lemur social systems and their ecological basis. Plenum Press, New York, pp 241–260

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • van Schaik CP, Terborgh JW, Wright SJ (1993) The phenology of tropical forests: adaptive significance and consequences for primary consumers. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 24:353–377

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Soest PJ (1996) Allometry and ecology of feeding behavior and digestive capacity in herbivores: a review. Zool Biol 15:455–479

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker CH (1978) Species differences in microsomal monooxygenase activity and their relationship to biological half-lives. Drug Metab Rev 7:295–310

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Waser P (1977) Feeding, ranging and group size in the mangabey Cercocebus albigena. In: Clutton-Brock TH (ed) Primate ecology: studies of feeding and ranging behavior in lemurs, monkeys and apes. Academic, New York, pp 183–222

    Google Scholar 

  • Waterman PG (1984) Food acquisition and processing as a function of plant chemistry. In: Chivers DJ, Wood BA, Bilsborough A (eds) Food acquisition and processing in primates. Plenum Press, New York, pp 177–212

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Waterman PG, Kool K (1994) Colobine food selection and plant chemistry. In: Davies AG, Oates JF (eds) Colobine monkeys: their ecology, behavior and evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 251–284

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts DP, Potts KB, Lwanga JS, Mitani JC (2011a) Diet of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda, 2. Temporal variation and fallback foods. Am J Primatol 74:130–144

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watts DP, Potts KB, Lwanga JS, Mitani JC (2011b) Diet of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda, 2. Diet composition and diversity. Am J Primatol 74:114–129

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wheelwright NT, Janson CH (1985) Colors of fruit displays of bird-dispersed plants in two tropical forests. Am Nat 126:777–799

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White FJ (1998) Seasonality and socioecology: the importance of variation in fruit abundance to bonobo sociality. Int J Primatol 19:1013–1027

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whiten A, Goodall J, McGrew WC, Nishida T, Reynolds C, Sugiyama Y, Tutin CEG, Wrangham RW, Boesch C (1999) Cultures in chimpanzees. Nature 399:682–685

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Whiten A, Goodall J, McGrew WC, Nishida T, Reynolds C, Sugiyama Y, Tutin CEG, Wrangham RW, Boesch C (2001) Charting cultural variation in chimpanzees. Behaviour 138:1481–1516

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitmore TC (1990) An introduction to tropical rain forests. Clarendon, Oxford, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Wrangham R (2009) Catching fire: how cooking made us human. Basic Book, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wrangham RW, Conklin-Brittain NL, Hunt KD (1998) Dietary response of chimpanzees and cercopithecines to seasonal variation in fruit abundance. I Antifeedants. Int J Primatol 19:949–970

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wrangham RW, Jones JH, Laden G, Pilbeam D, Conklin-Brittain NL (1999) The raw and the stolen: cooking and the ecology of human origins. Curr Anthropol 40:567–594

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yamakoshi G (1998) Dietary response to fruit scarcity of wild chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea: possible implications for ecological importance of tool use. Am J Phys Anthropol 106:283–295

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Texas, San Antonio, TX, 78006, USA

    Joanna E. Lambert

Authors
  1. Joanna E. Lambert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joanna E. Lambert .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Anthropologie, Johannes-Gutenberg Universität, Mainz, Germany

    Winfried Henke

  2. Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, USA

    Ian Tattersall

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this entry

Cite this entry

Lambert, J.E. (2015). Evolutionary Biology of Ape and Monkey Feeding and Nutrition. In: Henke, W., Tattersall, I. (eds) Handbook of Paleoanthropology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39979-4_39

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation