Ray Audette said:

>All Primates eat prodigious amounts of meat in the form of insects.

Granted that primates eat insects, but "prodigious" amounts? How about a
reference for that statement? I'm skeptical. Could you give a rough
translation in terms of the percent of diet that "prodigous" equates to? 5%
of diet? 10%? 20? 30%? How much is "prodigious"?

>Field studies have shown that fruit eating Primates actually choose fruit
>based
>on insect contamination.  The fruit with worm holes being preferred.  Often
>the worm will be eaten and the rest of the fruit discarded!

Reference for this too, please. Would like to check this out.

>Of course every film you have ever seen of a monkey or ape showed them eating
>bugs. This activity is called grooming and takes up to several hours per day.

Again, it would be nice to see some estimate of how much mass this several
hours of grooming per day adds up to in insects consumed compared to the
overall intake of the rest of the diet. What are the references here? (Both
for the number of hours spent grooming, and to give some kind of indication
as to amount of insects from the activity?)

>If you were to run naked through a rain forest and then eat the bugs
>clinging to your body at the end of the day you would have little room
>left for additional food.

A very interesting statement, but... gotta source I can look into?

>As all fruits are seasonal, this is an
>important component to all Primate diets and zookeepers have found that
>most Primates are incapable of reproduction unless this requirement is
>met.

Most interesting... Have a reference to explore further?

>Of course those primates who inhabit the savannah (Hominids)where
>there are no trees must eat more meat or die of starvation.

Got a reference for this as well? Thanks,

--Ward Nicholson <[log in to unmask]>