Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) are not neophobic toward novel food with a high sugar content.
While we know that food neophobia in nonhuman primates is affected by social factors, little is known about how palatability, and specifically sugar content, might ameliorate a monkey's hesitancy to eat a novel food. It is likely that an innate preference for sweet substances would alter an animal's typical neophobic response. To test this, I presented nine male rhesus macaques with novel foods that contained a low, high, or no amount of sugar. As expected, the monkeys exhibited a neophobic response to the no-sugar novel foods but not to the high-sugar novel foods. Previous research on food neophobia may need to be reevaluated in light of the effects of sugar content on the neophobic response.
Johnson
Elizabeth C
EC
Department of Psychology, Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. bjohnson@oglethorpe.edu
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002241:Carbohydrates; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male
D002241:Carbohydrates