DIET, LONGEVITY AND DENTAL DISEASE IN THE SIERRA LEONE CHIMPANZEE

Abstract

The Sierra Leone chimpanzee has adapted its dietary and feeding habits to the changed ecology resulting from replacement of high forest by secondary forest and from the extensive development of agriculture in the latter. Much of the animal's food is now procured, easily and in abundance, from native farms and gardens; it differs qualitatively from the traditional high forest diet. One consequence of this now, constant and abundant food supply appears to be an increased longevity. Another is the high incidence of dental mischief from the mastication of infected food material obtained from the refuse heaps around native habitations.