I don’t know of any primates in their natural, wild environs that hunt other animals. They all live on fruits, berries, roots, leaves, tubers, and insects. Any exceptions would be interesting to know.
chimps hunt.... sometimes even with spears.
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~stanford/chimphunt.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN2244829320070222
Just for fun...
Watch them hunt and kill and feast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDFh5JdYh7I&feature=related
You really ought to read more. Primates, in particular Chimpanzees, hunt, kill and eat other primates. That includes ALL species of Chimps. Read Jane Goodall. Chimps have been known to carry off, kill and eat native babies, just another primate to them. Jane Goodall kept her own baby in a cimp proof cage while studying them in the wild.It is a well known fact that chimps set up hunts and drive monkeys to other chimps waiting to ambush and kill them. They then split the spoils between them. Don't believe me? Please do a google search on chimps, Jane Goodall and see for yourself.
Our teeth are made to chew and tear meat, we are classified omnivorous.
For example, Chimpanzees eat Baboons. Bonobos eat other, smaller monkeys.
I didn’t claw my way to the top of the food chain to eat beans, berries, and bushes!
“I don’t know of any primates in their natural, wild environs that hunt other animals...”
Chimpanzees do, and there have been videos made of them hunting monkeys for meat.
Google primate carnivores; one sample:
Feeding Habits
The primate order includes a handful of species that live entirely on meat (carnivores) and also a few that are strict vegetarians (herbivores), but it is composed chiefly of animals that have varied diets (omnivores). The carnivorous primates are the four species of tarsiers, which live in Southeast Asia. Using their long back legs, these pocket-sized nocturnal hunters leap on their prey, pinning it down with their hands and then killing it with their needle-sharp teeth. Tarsiers primarily eat insects but will also eat lizards, bats, and snakes.
Other prosimians, such as galagos and mouse lemurs, also hunt for insects, but they supplement their diet with different kinds of food, including lizards, bird eggs, fruit, and plant sap. This opportunistic approach to feeding is seen in the majority of monkeys and also in chimpanzees. Several species of monkeys, and chimpanzees, but not the other apes, have been known to attack and eat other monkeys. Baboons, the most adept hunters on the ground, often eat meat and sometimes manage to kill small antelope.
Most apes and monkeys eat a range of plant-based foods, but a few specialize in eating leaves. South American howler monkeys and African colobus monkeys eat the leaves of many different trees, but the proboscis monkey on the island of Borneo is more selective, surviving largely on the leaves of mangroves. These leaf-eating monkeys have modified digestive systems, similar to cows, which enable them to break down food that few other monkeys can digest. Other apes and monkeys eat mostly fruit, while some marmosets and lemurs depend on tree gum and sap.
Primates are omnivores, they are also lousy hunters and/but opportunistic and very adaptable.
Primate teeth are not optimized for one diet or the other (but try to avoid being bitten by a baboon).
We are still geared to eating meat and we can easily assimilate needed minerals and vitamins from other stuff; it's nice to be able to shift gears when necessary.
It's also useful that some primates learned to farm, ranch, preserve food, and build shelter.
By and large, those primates thrived because they could kill things, cook 'em, and eat 'em with dairy and veggies on the side. No longer requiring that specific parts of their anatomy evolve for specific and critical conditions.
From what I read in the article, they cited everything that makes the Atkins diet work and recognize that humans are imperfect for any one thing but - eventually - capable of all things.
Chimpanzees, our closest genetic relative, hunt and eat small critters such as mice and monkeys in addition to eating insects. As for our ancestors, they ate anything they could get their hands on! I often characterize homo sapiens as “beach apes” since we can swim, have a nose designed for diving under water, have an insulating layer of fat under our skin like seals, are relatively hairless, and thrive on seafood. Interesting factoid: Caribou stomp lemmings and eat them. Need protein in a harsh climate.