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Mycophagy among Primates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2003

AMY M. HANSON ,
KATHIE T. HODGE  and
LEILA M. PORTER
AMY M. HANSON
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, USA.
KATHIE T. HODGE
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA.
LEILA M. PORTER
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, W. A. 98195, USA.
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Abstract

The majority of the 22 primate species known to eat fungi spend less than 5% of their feeding time doing so. The Goeldi's monkey (Callimico goeldii), a small South American primate, devotes up to 63% of its feeding time to the consumption of Auricularia auricula, A. mesenterica, Ascopolyporus polyporoides and A. polychrous. This may be as much as 6.1kg/animal/year of fresh weight of fungus consumed by an animal weighing half a kilogram; in comparison, the average person in the U.S.A. consumes 1.9 kg/person/year of fresh weight of mushrooms. The nutritional benefits of mycophagy appear to be relatively few, but need to be investigated further. Mycophagy by Goeldi's monkeys may be a strategy for reducing feeding competition during the dry season and likely affects the monkeys' home range size and distribution pattern.

Keywords

PrimatesCallimicomycophagyAuriculariaAscopolyporus
Type
Original Article
Information
Mycologist , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , February 2003 , pp. 6 - 10
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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