What do apes eat?
Apes eat fruit but supplement their diets with insects, tubers, occasional meat, and more. While apes are a rather broad group of animals, there are some general characteristics that most species stick to. Overall, apes are frugivores. A frugivore is an animal whose diet primarily consists of fruit or fruit-like plants. Most apes can live on omnivorous diets, but fruit is the main staple. Notably, gorillas are folivorous, meaning they mostly eat plants, leaves, roots, shoots, and stalks. Humans have the most diverse diet of all the great apes, eating everything from fruits and veggies to meats and dairy.
A complete list of foods apes eat
Here is a complete list of foods apes eat:
fruitsveggiesplant leavestubersshootsstalksinsectsother primates (occasionally)processed and cultivated foods (humans only)
Different diets for different ape species
Since apes have such a diverse diet across different species, let’s look through some specific examples.
Gorillas
Gorillas have the most different diet from the other apes (aside from humans). They are herbivorous and terrestrial. Since they don’t regularly climb trees, their diets reflect it. There are four subspecies of gorillas, but all of them share a similar diet. Their main foods include stems, bamboo shoots, fallen fruits, and leaves. Western lowland gorillas, however, have a dietary specialization. They will break open termite nests and feed on the millions of insects inside. They are also known to eat ants.
Orangutans
Orangutans live in the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. Their diet is almost exclusively fruit. Their favorite foods are lychees, mangosteens, mangoes, figs, and durian. Their diet is so fruit-heavy, it’s estimated that fruit is between 60-90% of their total dietary intake. Aside from fruit, orangutans eat leaves, shoots, insects, and eggs when they find them.
Bonobos
Bonobos are endangered apes that can only be found in the southern forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are closely related to chimpanzees but are not recognized as a separate species. They are known to be the smartest apes in the world. There are 113 different plants that bonobos consider food. Fruit is their main caloric source, but they are omnivores that also eat leaves, flowers, seeds, insects, fungus, and honey. They are sometimes seen washing their food in water, showing some incredible evolutionary evidence for disease avoidance.
Chimps
Chimpanzees (often called chimps) are highly intelligent and live in the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. Chimps are omnivores but generally stick to fruits, berries, leaves, and seeds. When they stray from vegetation, they are known to eat insects, eggs, and small vertebrates (birds, reptiles, and mammals). They will occasionally eat meat, but it’s estimated that chimps only get 3% of their diet from meat sources (about nine days a year).
Gibbons
Gibbons are typical frugivores that live all the way from Southern China to Bangladesh. Their diet is almost entirely fruit, but like other primates, they have the ability to alter it to include things like leaves, flowers, shoots, insects, and eggs.
How do apes get their food?
There are three common ways apes get their food. Terrestrial foraging is useful for finding plants, leaves, and shoots that are edible. Gorillas and chimps are primarily terrestrial, so this method of foraging is generally the approach they take. This can be as simple as pulling leaves from a stalk or as complex as creating tools to pry insects out of dead logs. Arboreal foraging is where apes who primarily eat fruit will thrive. Fruits are usually higher up in the trees, making them harder to reach from the ground. Climbing trees and crossing large swaths of land in search of fruit is common when foraging aboreally. Cultivation is a uniquely human method of gathering food. Planting, reaping, and processing allows humans to gather large amounts of food without foraging across large swaths of land.
Can apes eat human food?
There are a few settings where apes interact with humans on a regular basis. Zoos are some of the most common, but there are occasional human interactions with wild apes. Since humans and apes are so closely related, the foods that we share are incredibly similar. In fact, apes and humans can eat almost identical diets. In captivity, apes may eat (and even prefer) human food, but there are healthy and unhealthy options just like there are for humans. For example, chimps at the Chimp Haven rescue center are given sugar-free popsicles when they want to provide a sweet treat for their primate friends. Additionally, they are often given “surprise foods” that they have never seen before. It’s often that these new foods become favorites (the first time they had a kiwi is one example).
Are apes cannibals?
While it isn’t common, there have been instances of cannibalism among the apes. Chimpanzees are by far the most likely cannibals among the great apes. The most likely occurrence is when an adult male kills the child of another female. The intent isn’t usually to eat them, but inevitably the result occurs when there is now meat in front of hungry apes. Additionally, different chimpanzee tribes will attack individuals from other groups and eat them. Generally, animal cannibalism is done out of scarcity and isn’t typical.
