How do primates make a living in natural forests when nutrients are either poorly available or sparsely distributed?

Although Australia has no wild primates (well maybe in Canberra on a Friday night!) we are increasingly drawn to apply the nutritional approaches developed with marsupials to studies of free-ranging primates. Usually this occurs in collaboration with other researchers and we are always open to interesting projects in these areas.  However, we are unable to participate in zoo studies of primates.

Papers from this work

• Felton AM, Felton A, Wood JT, Foley WJ, Raubenheimer D, Wallis IR, Lindenmayer DB (2009) Nutritional ecology of spider monkeys (Ateles chamek) in lowland Bolivia: How macro-nutrient balancing influences food choices. International Journal of Primatology 30: 675-696
• Felton AM, Felton A, Raubenheimer D, Simpson S, Foley WJ, Wood J, Wallis IR, Lindenmayer DB (2009) The protein content of food items dictates the total energy intake of a free-ranging primate. Behavioural Ecology 20:685-690 (PDF, 147 KB)
• Felton AM, Felton A, Lindenmayer DB, Foley WJ (2009) Nutritional goals of wild primates. Functional Ecology 23:70-78 (PDF, 343 KB).