RE: Chimps eat what?! Notes from the field

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Chimps eat what?! Notes from the field

in nature •  8 years ago 

You are on a roll, @oldfangle. You ask the same questions as primatologists.

Even a full grown chimpanzee cannot consume an entire monkey. Since their digestive systems are designed for fruit, not tissue, it can take hours of chewing just for a bit of meat. Whoever has the carcass may select the best bits for themselves and the rest could go to others (those who crowd around begging for meat).

Here's an excerpt from a recent conference talk by Prof Ian Gilby of ASU, with one of the best titles ever : BRAAAINS!!!

...the head was significantly more likely to be targeted first (69% of bouts) than either the torso or an appendage... These preliminary analyses indicate that chimpanzees value the brain more highly than components of the torso (including viscera) or skeletal muscle. We hypothesize that this is due to the brain’s relatively high fat content, which likely also motivated early hominins to seek vertebrate prey.

Anecdotally, I've heard researchers from other sites say that chimpanzees love the hind guts. Maybe it depends on what kind of monkey or prey.

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