Primate Feeding and Foraging: Integrating Studies of Behavior and Morphology

Abstract

Given that something as fundamental as food acquisition is subject to selection pressure, it follows that morphological and behavioral diversity among primates is reflective of a range of adaptations to diet, feeding, and foraging. The recognition of these adaptations, however, is operationally difficult because it is the interaction between morphological and ecological variables that serves to define the particular adaptation. Researchers have addressed this problem of recognition of adaptation by integrating functional and biomechanical measures of morphological performance with observations of foraging and feeding behavior of primates in natural habitats. These disparate approaches traditionally resided in separate laboratory and field domains, but technological and analytical advances have blurred the distinction between them. The success with which this integration of approaches has elucidated the nature of primate foraging adaptations is reviewed with respect to (a) ingestive strategies, (b) locomotor diversity, (c) hard-object feeding in papionin primates, and (d) the influence of “fallback foods” on behavior and morphology.