Gustatory thresholds for food-associated sugars in the spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi)

✍ Scribed by Matthias Laska; Edith Carrera Sanchez; José Antonio Rodriguez Rivera; Ernesto Rodriguez Luna

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 296 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0275-2565
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1098-2345(1996)39:3<189::aid-ajp4>3.0.co;2-v

✦ Synopsis

The purpose of this study was to determine gustatory thresholds for five different food-associated sugars in Ateles geofroyi. Using a two-bottle test, three adult spider monkeys were found to significantly prefer concentrations as low as 3 mM sucrose, 15 mM fructose, 20 mM glucose, and 10 mM lactose over tap water. Maltose was significantly discriminated down to 20 mM with individual animals showing either a preference or an aversion, or an inverted U-shaped function of preference toward higher concentrations of this carbohydrate. The results showed the spider monkey to respond to lower sugar concentrations compared to other nonhuman primates tested so far and thus support the assumptions that Ateles geofioyi may use sweetness as a criterion for food selection, and that the remarkably high sweet-taste sensitivity of this frugivorous species might be correlated with its dietary specialization.