Surprise!!!! Humans and spider monkeys share similar food habits. While this may not sound to be very convincing at the first instance, but behavioral ecologists have established just that. A recent study on spider humans revealed that they have similar eating habits like humans, which in turn, had made many scientists wonder if our ancestors share some similar roots as theirs.

•    Similarity in Protein Intake:
Like humans, protein forms an important part of the spider monkeys’ diets too. An extensive study on spider monkeys showed that they ate a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. While fig was a particular favorite of spider monkeys, they rarely ate insects, which were high in proteins. Their daily amount of food intake varied, their daily intake of carbohydrates and fats also varied. However, it was quite interesting to note that their daily intake of protein remained constant.

This gradually brought out another important point in their dietary habits – in their pattern of nutrient intake. It is a well established fact that human beings tightly control their protein intake to keep the ever-growing problem of obesity in control. Strangely, it was realized that like humans, spider monkeys also tightly regulate their daily protein intake. They aim for a target amount of protein each day and regardless of the source of the protein (be it ripe fruits or other vegetables), always stopped after the pre-decided protein level is reached. This was quite a revelation, as previously ecologists believed that spider monkeys were “energy maximizers”, that is, they would maximize their daily energy intake as much as possible.

•    Similar Effects of Protein Intake:
There’s also mark similarity in the effects or consequences of tight protein regulation in the monkeys and human beings. In both human beings and monkeys, if the diet is carbohydrate and fat rich and has less of protein, then they end up in absorbing more energy in order to obtain the protein target. This is turn leads to weight gain in both human beings and the monkeys. Thus, one might find some similarity between the nutritional diet adjustments that human being and spider monkeys make to manage obesity.

•    Similar Sugar Intake:
Similarity between spider monkeys and human beings was also found in terms of the sweet taste perception. It was experimented and proved that both human beings and spiders prefer sucrose to other forms of naturally occurring saccharides, like fructose, maltose, etc. This pattern is strikingly different from that found in other non-humans, like mice, rats, hamsters, etc, which prefer maltose to sucrose always.

Thus, humans and spiders have similar eating habits. This, on one hand, indicates that evolutionary origins of regularity patterns of dietary intakes are quite old and on the other hand, it also indicates that spider monkeys and humans may have had a common ancestor. Surprising, isn’t it?

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