ANT203H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Birmingham City Centre, Understory, Ring-Tailed Lemur
23 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Primates are the first and foremost parts of ecosystems: ecology: the study of interrelationships of animals, plants, and their physical environment, primates influence the ecology of many tropical forests. Dispersers of seeds and pollinators of flowering plants: primate behavior evolved in response to environmental pressures. Context of the natural environment in which the primate evolved: finding and eating food is always a concern that occupies much of the day for nonhuman primates. Energy that is expended to find food (calories burned) must be balanced by the quantity (calories consumed) and quality (nutrients such as fats, proteins, and carbohydrates) of the food eaten. Diet: most are herbivore, plant food diet, many lower primates eat insects as substantial portion of diet. Few higher primates also eat meat: tarsier of southeast asia is only one who is completely carnivorous. Insects, lizards, frogs, and other small animals: for the rest, fruits and leaves, natural selection with means to protect trees from over-eating leaves.
