Insectivory by Gorillas

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Invertebrates occur in large numbers on the food plants of the gorillas of the Virunga Volcanoes of East Central Africa. Consequently, the animals inadvertently eat several thousand invertebrates per day. Most are minute, however, and total daily ingestion is of the order of only 2 g or so, which is nevertheless probably sufficient for trace element requirements. The high altitude Virungas surely harbour a low invertebrate biomass, so inadvertent insectivory is probably even more prevalent in lowland forests. This being the case, deliberate insectivory could merely be a non-beneficial side-effect of an otherwise adaptive taste, given that it is so infrequent compared to the rate of accidental consumption of invertebrates.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: