Читать книгу Anthropology For Dummies - Cameron M. Smith - Страница 85

The frugivores (fruit-eaters) focus on fruit, but they eat other things as well. Among the most frugivorous primates are the apes, and of these, the most fruit-obsessed are the orangutans, which devour large quantities of the custard-like durian fruit as well as the leaves, fruit, and seeds of nearly 400 other plant species. The frugivores have a sweet tooth, focusing on sugary plant products, and they display the following characteristics:

 Generally large size (compared to most primates), averaging over 10 kilograms (20 pounds)

 A diurnal lifestyle, being active mainly at day

 Mixed sharp and flat teeth for processing vegetation (but sometimes with particularly large incisors for opening up tough-skinned fruit)

Of the more striking characteristics of the frugivores is their good memory. They’re very good about remembering just where good patches of fruit appear each year and therefore spend a little less time foraging in search of food than some other primates. This skill can have important (if currently unknown) effects on variables like the complexity of social interactions because they spend more time sitting, grooming, and feeding together than traveling in search of food.