Adaptive strategies of primates in relation to leaf eating

Claude Marcel Hladik (1)

1 Laboratoire d'écologie générale

Lepilemur is presented as an example of extreme specialization for folivory, with a primitive type of social organization and the smallest individual territory. The "supplying area" of the other prosimian genera is correlated with the relative proportion of leaves and fruits in the diet and with the body weight. A general principle concerning body weights and diets of prosimians and simian primates is presented and discussed. The frugivorous-folivorous simian primates show a similar pattern of ecological and sociological adaptations, as exemplified by the genera Alouatta and Ateles for whom leaves are required to provide adequate levels of dietary protein. A similar feeding strategy is also found in many cercopithecid genera. Thus the "supplying area" and the maximum biomass are related to different models of habitat utilization which influence to a large extent the type of social organization.

Domaines: Anthropologie biologique; Biodiversité et Ecologie

Claude Marcel Hladik. Adaptive strategies of primates in relation to leaf eating. G.G. MONTGOMERY. The Ecology of arboreal Folivores, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, pp.373-395, 1978. ⟨hal-00561744⟩