Vertebrate predation by primates: a review of hunting patterns and prey

Thirty-eight species of free-living non-human primates, representing nine families, have been observed to hunt and/or eat vertebrates. Thirty-two per cent of these are prosimians, and 68% are arboreal forest-dwellers. The predation pattern involving the search for, and pursuit, capture and consumption of prey is rarely exhibited in nonhuman primates other than chimpanzees and baboons. Scavenging among non-human primates is uncommon. Only baboons and chimpanzees are known to stalk their prey, to hunt co-operatively and to share meat, and only chimpanzees have been observed to kill their prey by flailing and to carry meat. Man is the only primate that hunts animals larger than himself, and that incorporates tool-use, complex vocal communication and bipedalism into his hunting pattern. It is concluded that: (1) hunting of vertebrates is widespread but infrequent among free-living nonhuman primates, (2) search for, and pursuit, killing and eating of vertebrates was probably practised by early primates, and (3) there are several similarities between the hunting patterns of man and non-human primates but also several important differences.