Body weight, diet and home range area in primates.

Primates show a strong positive relationship between body weight and home range area. Dietary habits also influence home range area. Folivorous primates occupy smaller home range areas for their body weight than do frugivores and omnivores. Primates generally require smaller home range area per individual than solitary terrestrial mammals, but primates living in social groups have much larger total home range than individual solitary mammals. This trend may necessitate higher expenditures of energy in food-gathering or modifications in movement patterns.