Monkeys are picky choosy eaters

Monkeys decide where to feed based on the quality of the resources available and its effect on their social group, rather than simply selecting the nearest food available, according to a new study by a team of two American researchers.

Berlin, July 18 : Monkeys decide where to feed based on the quality of the resources available and its effect on their social group, rather than simply selecting the nearest food available, according to a new study by a team of two American researchers.

Elena Cunningham and Charles Janson from the New York University College of Dentistry and the State University of New York, as part of their study, investigated whether a group of six white-faced saki monkeys, living on an island in Venezuela, used memory to travel to select feeding resources during a period of fruit abundance.

They used a combination of statistical analyses and computer models to look at the resources available to the sakis and compare the observed distances travelled with predicted distances.

The monkeys' daily foraging pattern consisted of frequent short feeding bouts and a few long feeding bouts.

Findings revealed that the sakis travelled four times further than the predicted distances, suggesting that they were extremely selective about the food they ate. They also preferred trees with abundant fruit and trees with water holes.

When fruiting trees were abundant, the sakis travelled efficiently to the trees with the most fruit, ignoring closer, less productive ones.

Scientists said though the sakis took more risks by travelling further - by expending more energy and exposing themselves to predators for longer periods - choosing more fruit-rich sites allowed the group to limit feeding competition amongst themselves and to stick together to maintain intergroup dominance.

The findings appear in Springer's journal of Animal Cognition.

ANI