Ganas Jessica, Ortmann Sylvia, Robbins Martha M
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
Am J Primatol. 2008 Oct;70(10):927-38. doi: 10.1002/ajp.20584.
Determining the nutritional and phenolic basis of food preference is important for understanding the nutritional requirements of animals. Preference is a measure of which foods would be consumed by an animal if there was no variation in availability among food items. From September 2004 to August 2005, we measured the food preferences of four wild mountain gorilla groups that consume foliage and fruit in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, to determine what nutrients and phenols are preferred and/or avoided. To do so, we asked the following questions: (1) Which plant species do the gorillas prefer? (2) Considering the different plant parts consumed of these preferred species, what nutrients and/or phenols characterize them? (3) Do the nutritional and phenolic characteristics of preferred foods differ among gorilla groups? We found that although some species were preferred and others were not, of those species found in common among the different group home ranges, the same ones were generally preferred by all groups. Second, all groups preferred leaves with relatively high protein content and relatively low fiber content. Third, three out of four groups preferred leaves with relatively high sugar amounts. Fourth, all groups preferred pith with relatively high sugar content. Finally, of the two groups tested, we found that the preferred fruits of one group had relatively high condensed tannin and fiber/sugar contents, whereas the other group's preferred fruits were not characterized by any particular nutrient/phenol. Overall, there were no differences among gorilla groups in nutritional and phenolic preferences. Our results indicate that protein and sugar are important in the diets of gorillas, and that the gorillas fulfil these nutritional requirements through a combination of different plant parts, shedding new light on how gorillas balance their diets in a variable environment.
确定食物偏好的营养和酚类基础对于理解动物的营养需求至关重要。偏好是指在食物可获得性没有差异的情况下，动物会选择食用哪些食物的一种衡量标准。2004年9月至2005年8月，我们测量了乌干达布温迪难以穿越国家公园中四个以树叶和果实为食的野生山地大猩猩群体的食物偏好，以确定它们偏好和/或避开哪些营养物质和酚类。为此，我们提出了以下问题：（1）大猩猩更喜欢哪些植物物种？（2）考虑到这些偏好物种所食用的不同植物部位，它们具有哪些营养物质和/或酚类特征？（3）不同大猩猩群体之间，偏好食物的营养和酚类特征是否存在差异？我们发现，尽管有些物种受到偏好而有些则不然，但在不同群体活动范围内共同出现的物种中，通常所有群体都偏好相同的物种。其次，所有群体都更喜欢蛋白质含量相对较高且纤维含量相对较低的树叶。第三，四分之三的群体更喜欢含糖量相对较高的树叶。第四，所有群体都更喜欢含糖量相对较高的髓。最后，在接受测试的两个群体中，我们发现一个群体偏好的果实具有相对较高的缩合单宁以及纤维/糖含量，而另一个群体偏好的果实没有任何特定的营养物质/酚类特征。总体而言，大猩猩群体在营养和酚类偏好方面没有差异。我们的研究结果表明，蛋白质和糖在大猩猩的饮食中很重要，并且大猩猩通过食用不同的植物部位来满足这些营养需求，这为大猩猩如何在多变的环境中平衡饮食提供了新的线索。
