Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Carnivorous orangutans: Translation from the Darwinese

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

In “Vegetarian orang-utans eat world’s cutest animal” (New Scientist, 17 January 2012) Michael Marshall reports,

When fruit is scarce, try chomping on a slow loris. That seems to be the strategy adopted by the normally vegetarian orang-utans, which have been spotted knocking the small primates out of trees and killing them with a bite to the head.

Note the following:

All the documented hunts took place when there was little fruit available, which may push the apes to meat-eating, says Hardus.

By contrast, chimpanzees hunt more when fruit is abundant, perhaps because it doesn’t matter if they waste energy on a failed hunt.

Translation from the Darwinese: A number of great apes are carnivorous at times, and no simple rule seems to govern their preferences.

We didn’t realize that the slow loris was the world’s cutest animal: Here is a video argument for that view:

Comments
Jeopardy answer- Tastes like chicken... . . . What did the first orangutan to eat a loris say (after the first bite)?Joe
January 19, 2012
January
01
Jan
19
19
2012
07:31 AM
7
07
31
AM
PDT
"All the documented hunts took place when there was little fruit available, which may push the apes to meat-eating, says Hardus. By contrast, chimpanzees hunt more when fruit is abundant, perhaps because it doesn’t matter if they waste energy on a failed hunt." Translation from the Darwinese: A number of great apes are carnivorous at times, and no simple rule seems to govern their preferences.
What makes the original statement "Darwinese"?goodusername
January 18, 2012
January
01
Jan
18
18
2012
11:25 PM
11
11
25
PM
PDT

Leave a Reply