Abstract: Nutritional ecology is a field that studies the quantity and quality of food taken in by animals and involves adaptative and functional mechanisms used by those animal populations. There are five main considerations in this field: 1) energy maximization; 2) nitrogen ( protein) maximization; 3) regulation of plant secondary metabolites or PSMs; 4) regulation of dietary fiber; and 5) nutrient balancing. This paper introduces these five considerations in a review of studies by Chinese primatologists.

Key words: Feeding strategy; Nutrient balance; Nutrient quality