DIETARY VARIABILITY IN PRIMATE POPULATIONS

Dietary variability among primates is examined based on a review of 46 long-term studies of wild populations. Results suggest that primates do not consistently combine the same kinds of foods in their diets, as many past categorizations would suggest, but rather, that they often switch between diet categories (e.g., fruit, insects, etc.). Dietary variability, as quantified in our review, did not appear to be constrained by phylogeny or to differ between species placed in different diet categories (e.g., frugivores, insectivores, etc.). In addition, dietary variability was not related to body size, habitat productivity, seasonality, population density, or the number of sympatric primate species. © 1990 Japan Monkey Centre.