What Do Monkeys Eat
When children learn about monkeys, one of the first questions they always ask is, “What do monkeys eat?” There are two possible answers to the question. While there are no monkeys who are carnivores--animals who eat nothing but meat--monkeys can be either herbivores or omnivores.
An herbivore eats only plants. One of the groups of monkeys who are herbivores are the Colobinae subfamily of Old World Monkeys. Monkeys in this subfamily include the colobus, who live in South Africa, the langurs of South Asia and proboscis monkeys. Proboscis monkeys live only in coastal parts of Borneo, which is in Southeast Asia.
The Colobines have stomachs especially designed for their vegetable and fruit diet. Their stomachs have little compartments, called saccules, and in each one there is bacteria and different kinds of enzymes to break down the plant matter. Sometimes the Colobines are referred to as “leaf-eating monkeys.” They have more stomach acid and longer intestines than other monkeys.
The langurs, who live in South Asia are also herbivores. While they primarily eat leaves, they diversify their diet with seasonal flowers and fruits. Like the Colobines, they too have special bacteria and stomach acids to help digest the tough cellulose in leaf-bearing plants.
The other answer for the question, “What do monkeys eat,” is plants and animals. Some monkeys are omnivores, who just like human beings, have the capacity to eat both meat and plants. Among New World Monkeys, most of the families are omnivores. Among these are capuchins, squirrel monkeys, woolly monkeys, howler monkeys, and spider monkeys.
Capuchins have the most varied diet of all the omnivore monkeys. The live in Central and South America. Their diet consists of seeds, fruits, nuts, buds, various types of insects, spiders, vertebrates, and bird eggs. Most people who thinking about “What do monkeys eat?,” would never guess that capuchins who live in coastal areas also eat crabs and shellfish. They do this after cracking the shells with stones.
Squirrel monkeys, like all other New World Monkeys, also live in Central and South America. They eat mostly fruits and insects. When these are scarce, Squirrel monkeys will seek out buds, nuts, small vertebrates and eggs. The Woolly Monkey is quite rare these days, but their diet consists of soft-fleshed fruit, seeds, leaves, and exudates of seed pods. In captivity, the Woolly Monkey will eat small birds who fly into their enclosure.
Spider Monkeys and Howler Monkeys both have a very similar diet to the Woolly Monkey. All of these types of monkeys are excellent at disbursing seeds, which is fundamental to the growth of the rainforest. The fact that they can supplement their leaf and fruit diet with meat gives them an survival advantage over the monkeys who are herbivores.