Vernon Reynolds is a professor at Oxford University for
emeritus biological anthropology. He has been studying the lives of chimpanzees
in the Budongo Forest in Uganda for over 50 years and for the first time has
experienced something that he has never seen these animals do before. The
chimps have begun eating clay as meals. Dr. Reynolds theory on the chimps
interesting new food choice is brought on by the mass deforestation of raffiapalm trees. These trees leaves can be used for tobacco needs and the tobacco
farmers have been removing them in mass amount to cure and dry tobacco. The
chimps usually would eat the decayed pith of the raffia tree, which is abundant
in necessary minerals but with the deforestation of this tree it seems they
have turned to clay to receive their necessary minerals.
Dr. Reynolds has stated that the clay has ““plenty of aluminum in it, high concentrations
of iron, lots of manganese, magnesium and potassium,” which is very efficient
for a chimps diet. The one down fall is the lack of sodium levels in the clay.
The raffia palm trees provided a great amount of sodium to the chimps in the
past that the clay does not. There is no known source of sodium that the
chimpanzees are acquiring in order to make up for the lack of it they receive
from the clay.
This is
a great representation of evolution, when a key resource is diminished these
chimpanzees have made sure to find a new source to take its place. Eating clay
may not be as tasty as raffia trees but the chimpanzees are not giving up their
territory that easy and are making do with what they have.
