Artemis consuming a bird
As many of you will have noticed a couple weeks ago our new paper was published in African Primates describing new foods in the Barbary macaque diet. I would like to share with you here a couple of videos of these behaviours and a few photo’s.
Quick bird snack
The first video is of Ben eating a rabbit. This video was taken by Sofia. The behaviour was also observed by Michael and Maria. The video is a little gruesome and not for the faint of heart or one to watch over dinner. Click on the link below:
All feeding on animals was observed during the very dry, hot summer months when food was scarce and a little extra protein and vitamins would be very welcome. The next video is of Artemis. He was stood in front of me and jumped up and pounced on a fledgling bird, caught it and then sat and slowly ate his meaty snack. Again the video is a little gruesome. Click on the link below:
I was very lucky to have an alert and eagle-eyed team through out my fieldwork and through longer term projects we were able to discover some previously unknown behaviours. This is just one example of the many interesting discoveries coming out of the Barbary Macaque Project. I will have some more exciting news to bring you in the coming weeks. But for now if you would like to learn more about unusual feeding habits then check out the publication at African Primates. It’s open access and free for all to download –
http://journals.sfu.ca/afrprims/index.php/AfricanPrimates/article/view/62
Chris
This year, in the first week of June, I also observed a monkey feeding on birds. George discovered a nest up in the trees and ate two young birds who did not fledge yet. One parent left the nest but stayed close, screaming. George was not bothered by them, he kept sitting next to the nest. He threw down some leftovers which a younger male quickly collected.