Can alternative diet plans bear fruit?

If monkeys and crows know what is good for them, they better junk their diet of human fast food. Some years ago, studies found that some species of urban monkeys (not extreme variants of Homo sapiens but city-dwelling Saguinus leucopus) had become chubby and tests showed high cholesterol. A more recent study has now found that those other great city-slickers, crows, have developed the same malaise thanks to snaffling too many cheeseburgers from garbage dumps. Of course, one species (weight) gain could mean another species’ loss, as thrown away cheeseburgers could potentially indicate that less of them are making their way into human stomachs.

That cholesterol does not appear to have negatively impacted the monkeys’ and crows’ health as yet, however, is no reason for them to be allowed to continue gobbling fatty foods like reckless humans do. Some cities in the west with a high population of urban wildlife have already planted fruit trees to wean them away from junk food. Odisha government authorities have also announced earlier this year that fruit trees will be planted in areas where monkeys have become pugnacious food snatchers. As even supposedly smarter humans are mostly unwilling to eschew burgers for more healthy options, will monkeys and crows demonstrate they have superior understanding by reverting to better diets?