 Chiquito with a head of red leaf lettuce. Both monkeys occasionally "prune" and eat the Thunbergia vines trellised around the cage. | "Leaves and flowers make up a relatively small portion (10% to 20%) of the overall diet of well-studied spider monkey popula-tions." [Spider Monkeys; Behavior, Ecology and Evolution of the Genus Ateles. Edited by Christina J. Campbell] Although our monkeys pick and eat leaves when they're loose, I was shocked by how eagerly Chiquito gobbled up an aging head of red-leaf lettuce I planned to compost. We'll offer leaf lettuce to both Chiquito and Lolita on a daily basis from now on. I just wish that I could muster up the same enthusiasm for salad greens without dressing. I'd be noticeably thinner if I only ate what the monkeys eat. |  Chiquito finishes the lettuce quickly. Chiquito devours plain lettuce like I would a piece of corn-on-the-cob slathered with butter and salt. |
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2 Comments
Michele
2/20/2013 11:05:01 pm
I always feel better when I eat like a frugivore or foliovore, Jen, instead of an omnivore. But I still miss what Chiquito has never had :-[ Leave a Reply. |
In the jungle with the monkeys.
Michele Gawenka Jane Goodall has always been my hero, and working with primates an aspiration. Africa wasn't in the cards the summer I turned 16, when my parents offered to send me to volunteer, and there was only one class (in physical anthro-pology) when I wanted to study primatology in college. Archives
April 2015
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