Ward Nicholson wrote:

> 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"?

As insects must store reserves for times when food is scarce or to get
through metamorphisis, they are very high in fat.  Much higher as a
percentage than higher life forms.  Thus their caloric values far exceed
their weight as a percentage of total diet. As the insect population
outweighs all the other animal life in the rainforest combined by several
times they are the most reliable form of food a primate can find.  Before
grooming they eat the ones on their own body that they can reach, this is
more difficult to observe than grooming.  As I mentioned, several species
alive today eat no vegetable food at all!

> >bugs are animportant component to all Primate diets and zookeepers have found that most Primates are incapable of reproduction unless this
requirement is met.
>

National Geographic had a segment on breeding Lion Headed Marmosets at
the National Zoo in Washington DC.  Perhaps they can help your research.

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

I live and hunt everyday on the semitropical savannahs that surround
Dallas, TX.  Even though edible weeds (introduced by plowing) abound you
would still starve to death if you tried to survive on a predominatly
plant diet (esp. after 56 days above 100 degrees-did I mention it's hot
here?).  Our very mild wet season is not much better for salad fixins.

BTW, the red meat eating physiological adaptations mentioned in the
chapter "Man as Created by Nature" are observed in all Hominid species.
See the first reference in my bibliography at my web site.

I was not flaming Hitler or any other vegetarian.  I am merely pointing
out that because I hunt everyday doesn't make me any more blood thirsty
than Ghandi whose political decision to partition India knowingly (by his
own words) led to the deaths of millions (the revenge of which was his
own asasination).

I'm not trying to offend, but as George Custer could have told you,
sometimes hunter-gatherers are a little hard to deal with.

Ray Audette
Author "NeanderThin:A Caveman's Guide to Nutrition"
http://www.sofdesign.com/neander