Abstract
Some of the behavioral-ecological variation in the primate order can be explained by reference to a general model known as the Jarman/Bell principle. This principle involves a scaling relationship between metabolism and body size which suggests that body size is a fundamental tactic in an animal's feeding strategy. Relatively accurate predictions regarding the diets of primates of known body weight follow from this model. In addition, it can be expanded to predict the kinds of adaptations that would appear in animals that deviate from the expected size/diet pattern. The model is general enough such that, when joined with feeding strategy theory, it can be applied to extinct organisms. In this context it is suggested that Pleistocene hominid ecology was characterized more by omnivory than carnivory.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amerasinghe, F. P., Van Cuylenberg, B. W. B., and Hladik, C. M. (1971). Comparative histology of the alimentary tract of Ceylon primates in correlation with the diet.Ceylon Journal of Science, Biological Sciences 9: 75–87.
Andriantsiferana, R., and Rahandraha, T. (1973). Variation saisonnaire du choix alimentaire spontane chez Microcebus murinus.Comptes Rendus Academie des Sciences, Serie D 277: 2025–2028.
Bauchop, T., and Martucci, R. W. (1968). Ruminant-like digestion of the langur monkey.Science 161: 698–700.
Bell, R. H. V. (1971). A grazing ecosystem in the Serengeti.Scientific American 225: 86–93.
Bourliere, R., and Hadley, M. (1970). The ecology of tropical savannas.Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 1: 125–152.
Butzer, K. W. (1971). Another look at the Australopithecine cave breccias of the Transvaal.American Anthropologist 73: 1197–1201.
Campbell, R. S., and Cassady, J. T. (1954). Moisture and protein in forage on Louisiana forest ranges.Journal of Range Management 7: 41–42.
Cartmill, M. (1974).Daubentonia, Dactylopsila, Woodpeckers and klinorhynchy. In Martin, R. D., Doyle, G. A., and Walker, A. D. (eds.),Prosimian Biology. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.
Charles-Dominique, P. (1972). Ecologie et vie sociale deGalago demidovii (Fischer 1808, Prosimii).Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, Suppl. 9: 741.
Chivers, D. J. (1971). The Malayan siamang.Malayan Nature Journal 24: 78–86.
Coelho, A. M., Bramblett, C. A., Quick, L. B., and Bramblett, S. A. (1976). Resource availability and population density in primates: A socio-bioenergetic analysis of the energy budgets of Guatemalan howler and spider monkeys.Primates 17: 63–80.
Coimbra-Filho, A. F., and Mittermeier, R. A. (1976). Exudate-eating and tree-gouging in marmosets.Nature (London) 262: 630.
Coimbra-Filho, A. F., and Mittermeier, R. A. (in press). Tree-gouging, gum-eating and the “short-tusked” condition inCallithrix andCebuella. In Kleinman, D. G. (ed.),Proceedings of the Conference on the Biology and Conservation of the Callitrichidae.
Cooke, H. B. S. (1963). Pleistocene mammal faunas of Africa, with particular reference to southern Africa. In Howell, F. C., and Bourliere, F. (eds.),African Ecology and Human Evolution, Volume 36, Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, New York, pp. 65–116.
Crook, J. H. (1970). The socio-ecology of primates. In Crook, J. H. (ed.),Social Behaviour in Birds and Mammals. Academic Press, New York.
Crook, J. H., and Gartlan, J. S. (1966). Evolution of primate societies.Nature (London) 210: 1200–1203.
Darwin, C. (1859).The Origin of Species. John Murray, London.
Denham, W. W. (1971). Energy relations and some basic properties of primate social organization.American Anthropologist 73: 77–95.
Eisenberg, J. F., Muckenhirn, N. A., and Rudran, R. (1972). The relation between ecology and social structure in primates.Science 176: 863–874.
Emlen, J. M. (1966). The role of time and energy in food preference.American Naturalist 100: 611–617.
Fittkau, E. J., and Klinge, H. (1973). On biomass and trophic structure of the Central Amazonian rain forest ecosystem.Biotropica 5: 2–14.
Fooden, J. (1964). Stomach contents and gastrointestinal proportions of wild-shot Guianan monkeys.American Journal of Physical Anthropology 22: 227–231.
Fossey, D. (1974). Observations on home range of one group of mountain gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei).Animal Behavior 22: 568–581.
Freeland, W. J., and Janzen, D. H.: Strategies in herbivory by mammals: The role of plant secondary compounds.A merican Naturalist 108: 269–289.
French, M. H. (1957). Nutritional value of tropical grasses and fodders.Herbage Abstracts 27: 1–9.
Garcia, J., and Ervin, F. R. (1968). Gustatory-visceral and telereceptor-cutaneous conditioning — adaptation in internal and external milieus.Comm. Behav. Biol. I (pt. A): 389–415.
Garcia, J., and Hankins, W. G. (1977). On the orign of food aversion paradigms. In Barker, L. M., Domjan, M., and Best, M. (eds.),Learning Mechanisms in Food Selection. Baylor University Press, Waco, Texas.
Gaulin, S. J. C. (1977). The Ecology ofAlouatta seniculus in Andean Cloud Forest. Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University.
Gaulin, S. J. C., and Konner, M. J. (1977). On the natural diet of primates, including humans. In Wurtman, R., and Wurtman, J. (eds.),Nutrition and the Brain, Vol. I. Raven Press, New York.
Geist, V. (1974). On the relationship of social evolution and ecology in ungulates.American Zoologist 14(1): 205–220.
Gregory, W. K. (1910). The orders of mammals.Bulletin of The American Museum of Natural History 27: 1–524.
Halstead, W. C.. and Gallagher, B. B. (1962). Autoregulation of amino acid intake in the albino rat.Journal of Comparative Physiology and Psychology 55: 107–111.
Hemmingsen, A. M. (1960). Energy metabolism as related to body size and respiratory surfaces, and its evolution. Copenhagen:Reports of the Steno Memorial Hospital and the Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium 9: 1–110.
Hill, W. C. O. (1962).Primates, Comparative Anatomy and Taxonomy, Vol. V: Cebidae, Part B. University Press, Edinburgh.
Hladik, C. M. (1973). Alimentation et activité d'un groupe de chimpanzées réintroduits en forét gabonaise.Terre et Vie 27: 343–423.
Hladik, C. M., and Charles-Dominique, P. (1974). The behavior and ecology of the sportive lemur (Lepilemur mustelinus) in relation to its dietary peculiarity. In Martin, R. D., Doyle, G. A., and Walker, A. C. (eds.),Prosimian Biology. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.
Hladik, C. M., Hladik, A., Bousset, J., Valdebouze, P., Virben, G., and DeLort-Laval, J. (1971). Le régime alimentaire des primates de l'ile de Barro-Colorado (Panama): ré sultats des analyses quantitatives.Folia Primatologica 16: 85–122.
Horr, D. A. (1972). The Borneo orang-utan.Borneo Research Bulletin 4: 46–50.
Jarman, P. (1968). The effect of the creation of Lake Kariba upon the terrestrial ecology of the middle Zambezi Valley, with particular references to the large mammals. Ph.D. dissertation, Manchester University.
Jarman, P. J. (1974). The social organization of antelope in relation to their ecology.Behaviour 58(3,4): 215–267.
Jolly, C. J. (1970). The seed-eaters: a new model of hominid differentiation based on a baboon analogy.Man (new series) 5: 5–26.
Jorde, L. B., and Spuhler, J. N. (1974). A statistical analysis of selected aspects of primate demography, ecology and social behavior.Journal of Anthropological Research 30: 199–224.
Kay, R. F. (1975). Allometry and early hominids.Science 189: 63.
Kinzey, W. G., Rosenberger, A. L., and Ramirez, M. (1975). Vertical clinging and leaping in a neotropical anthropoid.Nature (London) 225: 327–328.
Kleiber, M. A. (1961).The Fire of Life: An Introduction to Animal Energetics. Wiley, New York.
Krebs, J. R., Erichsen, J. T., Webber, M. T., and Charnov, E. L. (1977). Optimal prey selection in the Great Tit (Parus major).Animal Behavior 25: 30–38.
Lee, R. B., and DeVore, I. (1968).Man the Hunter. Aldine, Chicago.
MacKinnon, J. (1974). The behaviour and ecology of wild orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus).Animal Behavior 22: 3–74.
Maynard Smith, J. (1964). Group selection and kin selection.Nature (London) 201: 1145–1147.
McArthur, R. H., and Pianka, E. R. (1966). On optimal use of a patchy environment.American Naturalist 100: 603–609.
McHenry, H. M. (1974). How large were the australopithecines?American Journal of Physical Anthropology 40: 329–340.
Miller, R. S. (1969). Competition and species diversity.Brookhaven Symposia in Biology 22: 63–70.
Munro, H. N. (1969). Evolution of protein metabolism in mammals. In Munro, H. N. (ed.),Mammalian Protein Metabolism, Vol. 3. Academic Press, New York.
Napier, J. R., and Napier, P. H. (1967).A Handbook of Living Primates. Academic Press, New York.
Nishida, T. (1972). Preliminary information on the pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus) of the Congo Basin.Primates 13: 415–425.
Odum, H. T. (1970). Summary: An emerging view of the ecological system at El Verde. In Odum, H. T. (ed.),A Tropical Rainforest. Office of Information Services, Washington D.C.
Ohwaki, K., Hungate, R. E., Lotter, L., Hofmann, R. R., and Maloiy, G. (1974). Stomach fermentation in East African colobus monkeys in their natural state.Applied Microbiology 27: 713–723.
Owen, R. (1840–1845).Odontography. Hippolyte Bailliere, London.
Petter, J.-J. (1965). The lemurs of Madagascar. In DeVore, I. (ed.),Primate Behavior: Field Studies of Lemurs, Monkeys and Apes. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Petter, J.-J., and Petter, A. (1967). The aye-aye of Madagascar. In Altman, S. A. (ed.),Social Communication among Primates. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Rahm, U. (1967). Observations during chimpanzee captures in the Congo. In Starck, D., Schneider, R., and Kuhn, H.-J. (eds.),Neue Ergebnisse der Primatologie. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart.
Richard, A. (1970). A comparative study of the activity patterns and behavior ofAlouatta villosa andAtels geoffroyi. Folia Primatologica 12: 241–263.
Rodgers, Q. R., and Harper, A. E. (1970). Selection of a solution containing histidine by rats fed a histidine-imbalanced diet.Journal of Comparative Physiology and Psychology 72: 66–71.
Rodman, P. S. (1973). Synecology of Bornean primates. Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University.
Rozin, P. (1967). Specific aversions as a component of specific hungers.Journal of Comparative Physiology and Psychology 64: 237–242.
Rozin, P. (1969). Adaptive food sampling patterns in vitamin deficient rats.Journal of Comparative Physiology and Psychology 69: 126–132.
Rozin, P., and Kalat, J. W. (1971). Specific hungers and poison avoidance as adaptive specializations of learning.Psychological Review 78: 459–486.
Sadleir, R. M. F. S. (1969a).The Ecology of Reproduction in Wild and Domestic Mammals. Methuen, London.
Sadleir, R. M. F. S. (1969b). The role of nutrition in the reproduction of wild mammals.Journal of Reproduction and Fertility, Supplement 6: 39–48.
Schaller, G. B. (1963).The Mountain Gorilla: Ecology and Behavior. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Schmidt-Nielsen, K. (1970).Animal Physiology, 3rd ed. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Schoener, T. W. (1971). Theory of feeding strategies.Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 2: 369–404.
Schwartz, J. H., Tattersall, I., and Eldredge, N. (1978). Phylogeny and classification of the primates revisited.Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 21: 95–133.
Seger, J. (in press). Models of gene action and the problem of behavior. In DeVore, I. (ed.),Sociobiology and the Social Sciences. Aldine, Chicago.
Shipman, P. L. (1977). Paleoecology, taphonomic history and population dynamics of the vertebrate fossil assemblage from the middle Miocene deposits exposed at Fort Ternan, Kenya. Ph.D. thesis, New York University.
Simpson, G. G. (1940). Studies on the earliest primates.Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 77: 185–212.
Suzuki, A. (1969). An ecological study of chimpanzees in a savanna woodland.Primates 10: 103–148.
Washburn, S. L., and Lancaster, C. S. (1968). The evolution of hunting. In Lee, R. B., and DeVore, I. (eds.),Man the Hunter. Aldine, Chicago.
Williams, G. C. (1966).Adaptation and Natural Selection. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Williams, G. C. (1971).Group Selection. Aldine, Chicago.
Wrangham, R. W. (1977). Feeding behaviour of chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. In Clutton-Brock, T. H. (ed.),Primate Ecology: Feeding and Ranging Behavior of Lemurs, Monkeys and Apes. Academic Press, London.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gaulin, S.J.C. A Jarman/Bell model of primate feeding niches. Hum Ecol 7, 1–20 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00889349
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00889349