Be it feast or famine, orangutans adapt with flexible diets
Rutgers UniversityPeer-Reviewed Publication
Humans could learn a thing or two from orangutans when it comes to maintaining a balanced, protein-filled diet. Great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, orangutans are marvels of adaptation to the vagaries of food supply in the wild, according to an international team of researchers led by a Rutgers University-New Brunswick scientist. The critically endangered primates outshine modern humans in avoiding obesity through their balanced choices of food and exercise, the scientists found. The researchers reported their findings, based on 15 years of firsthand observations of wild orangutans in the jungles of Borneo, in Science Advances.
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Funder
- United States Agency for International Development, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation