Chimpanzee: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/chimpanzee/
Environment (a):
Lemur: lemurs
rule the treetops of the tropical rainforest. Wild lemurs live only on Madagascar,
a large island off the east coast of Africa, and on the nearby Comoros Islands.
Spider Monkey: Spider
monkeys live in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America and far
north in Mexico. They have long arms and gripping tails that enable them to
move from branch to branch and tree to tree.
Baboon: Baboons are
found in almost every habitat
across Africa, multiple species of baboons live in savanna habitats and are
called 'savanna' baboons, olive baboons also live in the tropical forests of
West Africa, hamadryads baboons, which inhabit the semi-deserts of Ethiopia and
the southwestern Arabian Peninsula.
Gibbon: The
gibbon is a small sized ape, found inhabiting the dense jungles and tropical rain forests across southeast Asia. Gibbons belong to
the lesser ape family, which are closely related to the great apes. Gibbons are
arboreal animals,
which means that they spend the majority of their lives in the trees. Living in
the trees has its advantages for the gibbon as the gibbon has plenty of food
and is also a safe distance above ground from predators.
Chimpanzee: Chimpanzees
live in social communities of several dozen animals, and can habituate
themselves to African rain forests, woodlands, and grasslands. Although they
normally walk on all fours, chimpanzees can stand and walk upright. By swinging
from branch to branch they can also move quite efficiently in the trees, where
they do most of their eating.
Diet (b):
Lemur: Many lemurs are herbivores. They will eat almost everything the
forest’s trees and plants have to offer. Ring-tailed lemurs eat fruits, flowers, buds, bark, sap, seeds,
and leaves. Some species, such as the mouse lemurs, are omnivores. They eat insects, eggs, frogs, and lizards as well as plants.
Spider Monkey: Spider
monkeys find food in the treetops and feast on nuts, fruits, leaves, bird eggs,
and spiders.
Baboon: Baboons are
omnivorous and opportunistic in their feeding, which
means they will eat almost anything and will change their diets as the
environment around them changes. Baboon diets include a combination of
fruit, flowers, seeds, pods, leaves, gum, and underground storage organs from a
wide array of plant taxa as well as almost any small animal that they can
catch, Baboons typically choose foods that are high in protein and lipids and
low in fiber and potential toxins.
Gibbon: Gibbons
are omnivorous animals meaning that they eat a mixture of both plant and animal matter. The main food of the gibbon is ripe fruit, which grow around them in
the trees, and makes up around three quarters of the gibbon's diet. Gibbons also prey on insects, eggs, spiders and
small birds and reptiles.
C: Chimps are
generally fruit and plant eaters, but they also consume insects, eggs, and
meat, including carrion. They have a tremendously varied diet that includes
hundreds of known foods.
Environment Influence (c):
Lemur: Because the Lemurs live in trees, there diet with
treetop leaves will always be there. I think the environment affected the diet
because since they’re not usually on the ground all they have to eat are the
tree leaves and the fruits that grow on the branches as well as the flowers
that grow there too.
Spider Monkey: Because of evolution and the growth of the
tails, allowing them to swing from treetops, the spider monkeys are allowed to
swing from tree top to tree top gathering food that grow on the tree tops.
Because the evolution, the food they hunt must be in the trees.
Baboon: The ability the baboon has, able to change their
diet as the environment does, this makes the baboon the most adaptable to the
environment. As long as they know the plant/ animal they are eating doesn’t
have anything that will throw them off their diet, they will eat it.
Gibbon: Gibbons, like spider monkeys, live in trees, making
their food hunting in their environment limited to the insects and fruits like
are growing within the trees. The
environment affects their food because it’s mostly in the trees, never on the
ground.
Chimpanzee: Because they can work on both the ground and in
the trees, their environment hunting is wide. Being able to eat insects in both
the trees and on the ground, the environment doesn’t affect their diet as much
as it does to the lemurs, spider monkeys, and gibbons.
Photo of eating food (d):
Lemur
Chimpanzee
Baboon
Gibbon
Spider Monkey
I like your thread layout. I find it interesting that each of the species all seem to primarily eat food / vegetation and only a little protein. I figured that they would be primarily carnivorous.
ReplyDeleteOverall, very good discussion of each primate.
ReplyDeleteOne comment you made was interesting with regard to spider monkeys:
"Because the evolution, the food they hunt must be in the trees."
This raises a "chicken and the egg" question. Must they hunt for food in the trees because of how they have evolved physically? Or have they evolved they way they have because of where their primary source of food is located? Did food come first or body come first? Or (there is a third choice) was it a case where they co-evolved, with the body changing slowly as the primate in question specialized more and more toward arboreal living? Be careful about what caused what.
Missing the summary? Otherwise, good.
Nice Post! I too wrote about the diets of the five primates, I found that there are several conditions that impacted each species diets such as environment (geographically), climates and surroundings. I was very interested that the Lemurs are endemic of Madagascar, also that the islands climate is not very "seasonal" and that several natural occurrences impact the climate ultimately impacting the available food sources causing them to adapt the diet regularly.
ReplyDeleteThe Baboons are also very interesting in that they continuously migrate and do not have any specified habitat, this is also reflected in their diet, and they eat everything!
It’s interesting to note that both the Baboon and the Chimpanzee have a very broad diet, and are the largest of the five, it’s clear that their ability to adapt and change their diets has allowed them to grow stronger and bigger.