Food preference and nutrient composition in captive bonobos ( Pan paniscus )
- PDF / 889,675 Bytes
- 11 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 0 Downloads / 177 Views
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Food preference and nutrient composition in captive bonobos (Pan paniscus) Jonas Verspeek1,2 · Jeroen M. G. Stevens2 Received: 10 January 2020 / Accepted: 11 March 2020 © Japan Monkey Centre and Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Food preference has been studied in a range of Hominoidea in the wild and in captivity, allowing for interspecific comparisons. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) prefer low-fibre, high-sugar foods, suggesting that frugivory and their dietary overlap are a result of their shared preference for the same nutrients. Comparable tests of the nutritional preference of bonobos do not exist. In this study we examined food preferences of five captive bonobos for 23 familiar and ten novel food items. We performed paired-choice food tests, resulting in a clear rank order in food preference, with minor individual differences. Fruits were more preferred than vegetables. We correlated nutritional composition of the food items with the bonobos’ preference. We found that preferences for familiar food items were positively correlated with total energy and carbohydrate content and negatively correlated with water and micronutrient (sodium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, manganese, selenium) content. Food preference for the novel food items also showed a significant positive correlation with total energy and carbohydrate content. Our study supports the idea that food preference among bonobos follows the pattern of the other great apes and that the shared frugivorous diets may be the result of a common preference for the same nutrients. In the wild, these preferences may be less clear due to the interference of preferred nutrients with secondary compounds. Combining food preference data and nutritional information can help in providing a healthy diet with a balanced nutrient composition in captivity. Individual food preferences can help in optimizing food choice for positive reinforcement training and food-related tasks in future research. Keywords Frugivory · Hominoids · Energy content · Non-human primates · Nutrition
Introduction The majority of primate species include a large variety of foods in their diet (Richard 1985; Hughes 1993). Feeding on these food items does not happen randomly. Optimal foraging theory predicts that animals show marked preferences and select their food based on the availability, the time needed to find and consume the items, and the nutrient composition (Schoener 1971; Pyke 1984; Stephens and Krebs 1986; Kano 1992; Barton and Whiten 1994). Animals maximize their net intake of energy or other necessary nutrients,
* Jonas Verspeek [email protected] 1
Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
2
resulting in adaptive food selection patterns that are present today (Stephens and Krebs 1986). Early food preference studies sought to e
Data Loading...
