Large primates on foot easier

2008/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Zoologia
• Anatomia/Fisiologia

Large primates do not move much by trees. The explanation they have given to it is that they lost the ability to climb trees and need a lot of energy to do so. In a study with primates at Duke Lemure Center, they have shown that the reason is not that they need a lot of energy to climb, but that they spend less energy to walk on the ground.

Primates of different sizes were used to perform the experiment. They were propelled on a vertical belt, as if they were climbing a tree and horizontally. The amount of oxygen needed to carry out these two activities was measured and the amount of dissipated energy was calculated for each of them.

They saw that when climbing large and small primates needed the same amount of energy to climb every kilo of their body. When walking horizontally, the larger the animals, the less energy they needed to move, among other things because they take longer steps.