How Food-Secure Primates Make Choices About Food

Abstract

This is a project studying behavioral evolution of food choice and preference and how they are impacted by food security. Food secure primates food choices were collected and analyzed to evaluate if the innate feeding behaviors of the optimal foraging theory persist when a food source is secure and guaranteed. Some subjects corresponded with the optimal foraging theory in that they opted for more calories, while others opted for their top preference. Through experimentation it was concluded that nutrition is ultimately a personal endeavor that must be catered to a living individuals body size, temperature, environment and physical activity. There can be no streamline nutrition plan for living beings, particularly primates.