Allomothering behaviour of new and old world monkeys

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The holding or transferring of newborn infants at less than 1 month old by individuals other than the mothers was studied in 24 species of New and Old World monkeys under captive conditions. The observed monkey species could be divided into two types. Group A included eight species of three families where the mothers were tolerant to 'infant transfer' and readily retrieved their infants from other individuals, the frequency of infant transfer being high. The infant transfer of this group was termed allomothering behaviour. Group B included 16 species of two families where infant transfer did not occur at all or its frequency was very low and the mothers were possessive of their infants. Once transfer did occur, the infant could not be reclaimed with ease.The relationships between the two groups and taxonomic status, life forms and social types were evaluated in a total of 45 species from the present study and the literature. Correspondences were found with social type and taxonomic status. That is, species of Group A were seen only in the family or one-male type, except for one species, although none of this group appeared in the Cercopithecinae regardless of social types. The significance of infant transfer is discussed in relation to the participants' responses to it and the correlations between the two groups and social types.

Parturitions in Wild White-Headed Langurs (Trachypithecus leucocephalus) in the Nongguan Hills, China

“…Nulliparous female langurs may be able to learn adequate skills of infant handling by handling others' offspring. In contrast, macaque mothers are highly possessive of their infants, and infant handling by nonmaternal individuals is generally not observed until infants are a few months old (Hrdy and Hrdy 1976;Kohda 1985;McKenna 1979). As a result, young female macaques may lack infant handling experience, and thus appear less skillful with their firstborn offspring compared with langurs.…”

Primate Play Vocalizations and Their Functional Significance

“…Allomothering does not take place in those species living in multi-male/multi-female groups, such as ca puchins (genus: Cebus), spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi), common woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagotricha), or the two leafmonkey species (proboscis monkeys, Nasalis larvatus; red colobus, Colobus badius) in which play calls are not uttered. It also does not occur in cercopithecine monkeys, though some of them live not in multi-male/ multi-female but in one-male/multi-female groups [for a review, see Kohda, 1985]. It is unlikely that the clear correspondence seen in table 1 is merely coincidental.…”

“…Recently, referring to exactly the same subject infants as those covered by the present study, we reported the results of a survey of the occurrence of allomothering behaviour [Kohda, 1985], a summary of which is also presented in table I. Rapid comparison between the distribution of the play vocalizations and that of allomothering behaviour indicates complete consistency: in every species in which allomothering occurs, play vocalizations are heard.…”

Indiscriminate Response to Infant Calls in Wild Patas Monkeys (Erythrocebus patas)

“…However, some of them can be regarded as patrilineally related pairs if the one adult male can predominantly copulate with all the reproductive females in a harem. Several reviews have suggested that frequent allomothering in femalephilopatry and polygynous nonhuman primates, such as colobine and patas monkeys, might be explained by kin selection through the patrilineal line [26,32,33]. Although the objection to this hypothesis has been that relatedness among a harem of colobine monkeys might not be very high because dispersal of females is common [34], dispersal of female patas monkeys was not recognized in two long-term studies (at Kala Maloue, Cameroon [35], and at Laikipia, Kenya [36]).…”