Chimpanzees have very sophisticated food preferences

Unlike the popular belief that chimpanzees are herbivores, they actually eat meat. More specifically, they often eat the prey of the prey.

Anthropologists observed a group of chimpanzees deep in the forest of Gombe National Park, Tanzania when they enjoyed a special specialty.

Chimp chicks and eat dozens of baby colobus red monkeys.

While studying these chimpanzees, they observed chimpanzees chasing and eating dozens of baby colobus red monkeys. Most strangely, chimpanzees almost always start eating monkeys by biting their skulls and eating healthy brains. Sometimes, people also see hungry chimpanzees tucked into their brains to eat brains and use branches and leaves to salvage the little bit of leftover brain.

When you think about the food of a chimp, you probably only think about bananas and leaves, but this big ape does eat meat. Figs make up 50% of a wild chimp's diet, while meat only accounts for 5-8%. They also eat insects, eggs, bark and honey. Remarkably, a chimpanzee's diet often falls within the same behavior and varies among herds.

The predatory behavior was first recorded in chimpanzees by Dr. in Gombe National Park in the 1960s and since then it has become relatively popular knowledge. Researchers have even seen chimpanzees use spears to hunt sleeping long-nosed big apes in Senegal. However, this particular brain-eating method is still unfounded.

As explained in a study from the International Primate Journal, there are several reasons why chimpanzees do so. First, the brain is actually quite nutritious, high in calories and rich in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are very beneficial for neurodevelopment. In addition, the study explains that 'chimpanzees can easily open the skull with a single bite'.

Chimpanzees will eat the brain of the first prey - Ian Gilby's photo.

Main author Ian Gilby, an anthropologist at Arizona State University, told IFLScience: ' In our study, chimpanzees have eaten the brain first whenever possible - when the prey is about to mature. The skulls of near-mature monkeys are easy to open, compared to the harder skulls of adults. When controlling mature prey, chimpanzees start eating the head about half of the time, instead choosing soft internal organs'.

It is quite common for animals to pay attention to a special part of the body when hunting. For example, the grizzly bear also eats the brain, eggs, and salmon skin first because these parts are the most energetic. The wolf will also eat the fat-rich liver of the first prey before moving to the big muscle.