Chimp diet

Craig Presson (dhr@iname.com)
Mon, 2 Feb 1998 00:25:50 -6


I don't have my references handy, so I can't give a quantitative
picture, but I have a pretty good memory of what chimps in the wild
have been observed to eat. Besides all the fruit they can stuff in
their greedy little mouths, they eat regularly or opportunistically:

* carrion
* small animals
* termites and other insects
* grubs

And on rare occasions, chimp, as has been pointed out.

Mountain gorillas eat more greens than chimps do, and less animal
flesh.

This is pretty pointless, really, unless you're interested in primate
diet for its own sake or just like to argue with militant vegetarians.

Oh, and Gorilla gorilla is coprophagic, also -- his intestinal flora
synthesize a B-vitamin that he can't synthesize otherwise. That might
help dissuade the next person who insists we should be eating a gorilla
diet.

-- dhr@iname.com (Freeman Craig Presson)