Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword by Robert D. Martin
- Introduction
- 1 An ethnoprimatological approach to interactions between human and non-human primates
- 2 Habituating primates: processes, techniques, variables and ethics
- 3 Habitat description and phenology
- 4 Geographical information systems and remote sensing
- 5 Monitoring local weather and climate
- 6 Survey and census methods: population distribution and density
- 7 Trapping primates
- 8 Handling, anaesthesia, health evaluation and biological sampling
- 9 Morphology, morphometrics and taxonomy
- 10 Marking and radio-tracking primates
- 11 Field experiments with non-human primates: a tutorial
- 12 Feeding ecology, frugivory and seed dispersal
- 13 Dietary analysis I: food physics
- 14 Dietary analysis II: food chemistry
- 15 Collecting arthropods and arthropod remains for primate studies
- 16 Recording primate vocalizations
- 17 Photography and video for field researchers
- 18 Chronobiological aspects of primate research
- 19 Thermoregulation and energetics
- 20 Field endocrinology: monitoring hormonal changes in free-ranging primates
- 21 Collection, storage and analysis of non-invasive genetic material in primate biology
- 22 Tips from the bush: an A–Z of suggestions for successful fieldwork
- Index
- References
13 - Dietary analysis I: food physics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword by Robert D. Martin
- Introduction
- 1 An ethnoprimatological approach to interactions between human and non-human primates
- 2 Habituating primates: processes, techniques, variables and ethics
- 3 Habitat description and phenology
- 4 Geographical information systems and remote sensing
- 5 Monitoring local weather and climate
- 6 Survey and census methods: population distribution and density
- 7 Trapping primates
- 8 Handling, anaesthesia, health evaluation and biological sampling
- 9 Morphology, morphometrics and taxonomy
- 10 Marking and radio-tracking primates
- 11 Field experiments with non-human primates: a tutorial
- 12 Feeding ecology, frugivory and seed dispersal
- 13 Dietary analysis I: food physics
- 14 Dietary analysis II: food chemistry
- 15 Collecting arthropods and arthropod remains for primate studies
- 16 Recording primate vocalizations
- 17 Photography and video for field researchers
- 18 Chronobiological aspects of primate research
- 19 Thermoregulation and energetics
- 20 Field endocrinology: monitoring hormonal changes in free-ranging primates
- 21 Collection, storage and analysis of non-invasive genetic material in primate biology
- 22 Tips from the bush: an A–Z of suggestions for successful fieldwork
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
This chapter and the next focus on measurements of the physical and chemical attributes of potential foods that primates select or reject. The major reason for analysing primate diets in this manner is to understand the basis for their food choice. Observing primates as they feed quickly raises questions in the observer's mind about the possible foraging strategies that the animals might be following in order to survive. How do primates distinguish food from what is otherwise scenery? Can we measure the attributes of potential foods in the form in which primates are actually sensing them? What do primates get out of the foods they choose and are their choices, based on sensory capabilities, optimal in terms of nutrients? Tests of hypotheses that address these questions will require objective dietary analysis (e.g. for colour: Osorio et al., 2004). It is important to tailor your measurements to the questions being asked.
The physicochemical characteristics of foods may form The physicochemical characteristics of foods may form important sensory cues for their detection, selection and subsequent processing by primates, but all these characteristics are affected to some extent by specimen storage. Physical characteristics, such as colour, geometry and mechanical properties, may change drastically and rapidly, so it is often important and sometimes vital to make measurements almost immediately, while the specimen is fresh.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Field and Laboratory Methods in PrimatologyA Practical Guide, pp. 237 - 254Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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