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wild that allow proboscis monkeys to maintain healthy populations of sym-
biotic bacteria. Because we cannot save proboscis monkeys by preserving
them in zoos, we must save their habitats. But the forests in which the mon-
keys live are some of the most endangered ecosystems on the planet.
How did the proboscis monkeys come to be painted into such a tight
evolutionary corner? It is even tighter than that of the hoatzins, which can
dine on a much wider range of plants. To see how this happened, we must
look at the proboscis monkeys' relatives.
The primates, including ourselves, have radiated in many dif erent direc-
tions from their remote insect-eating ancestors. Dif erent members of the
primate order have adapted to both generalist and specialist diets.
Proboscis monkeys are not the only primates that can ferment their food.
All the other langur monkeys and their close relatives the colobus monkeys
have a specialized fermentation chamber that has formed in front of their
regular stomachs. These monkeys include the bewhiskered Hanuman lan-
gurs, like one that I encountered in central India's Bandhavgarh National
Figure 30 This Hanuman langur monkey in Bandhavgarh Park in India's central Madhya
Pradesh State also carries out some fermentation of its food, but it can eat a far wider variety
of foods than the proboscis monkey can.
 
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