Premasticated food transfer by wild chimpanzee mothers with their infants: Effects of maternal parity, infant age and sex, and food properties

Bădescu, Iulia; Sicotte, Pascale; Sandel, Aaron A.; Desruelle, Kelly J.; Curteanu, Cassandra; Watts, David P.; Sellen, Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102794

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Our results augment the existing literature showing a lack of difference in maternal investment based on parity in terrestrial primates (cradle, restrain, retrieve: Seay, 1966; different spatial proximity measures: Silk, 1991). However, these findings contrast with studies on primates of varying degree of terrestriality in which multiparous mothers seem to invest more into (premasticated) food transfer (e.g., chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes ): Bădescu et al, 2020) and independence promotion (e.g., rhesus macaques: Seay, 1966; Japanese macaques ( Macaca fuscata ): Tanaka, 1989) during the first six months of (offspring) age. With a larger sample size, follow up studies should investigate the interaction effect of mother’s parity and offspring age on maternal investment.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 81%

“…This was followed by an increase in the probability of mothers and offspring feeding in close proximity, peaking around 5-6 years of offspring age, which coincides with a steep increase in the immatures’ dietary breadth (Schuppli et al, 2021). Previous chimpanzee and orangutan studies also showed that mothers were increasingly less likely to share food items, as food processing competence of the offspring increases with age (e.g., Bădescu et al, 2020; Jaeggi et al, 2008; Mikeliban et al, 2021), indicating that mothers may be attuned to the developing competence of their offspring (Mikeliban et al, 2021). However, our current analysis cannot disentangle the role of mother vs. offspring in the probability of feeding in close proximity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Maternal behavior in Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) is modulated by mother-offspring characteristics and socioecological factors

Revathe,

Mundry,

Utami-Atmoko

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Mammalian mothers flexibly invest in their offspring to maximize their lifetime fitness. Flexible maternal investment may be particularly important in large-brained species with prolonged maternal care, e.g., in great apes. We investigated the effects of socioecological factors and mother-offspring characteristics on nine maternal behaviors in wild Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii; N=22 mother-offspring pairs; over 11,200 hours of focal data; collected from 2007-2022) using generalized linear mixed models. The behaviors fall under four maternal functions: locomotory support (carrying), skill acquisition support (feeding in proximity, food transfer), protective proximity maintenance (body contact and proximity initiation, following), and independence promotion (body contact and proximity termination, avoiding). Mother parity was not significantly associated with any maternal behavior. Mothers were more likely to show locomotory support, skill acquisition support, and protective proximity maintenance toward younger than older offspring; whereas they were more likely to promote independence in older than younger offspring. Mothers with male offspring were more likely to show skill acquisition support to their offspring than those with female offspring. With increasing food availability, skill acquisition support reduced. With increasing association size, mothers were more likely to show protective proximity maintenance and less likely to promote independence. When males were present, mothers were more likely to show locomotory support to their offspring. Sumatran orangutan mothers thus flexibly adjust offspring directed behavior in response to prevailing socioecological factors and mother-offspring characteristics. Our findings add support to the evolutionary theory that mammalian mothers flexibly invest in their offspring.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 81%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Maternal behavior in Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) is modulated by mother-offspring characteristics and socioecological factors

Revathe,

Mundry,

Utami-Atmoko

et al. 2024

Preprint

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show abstract

“…Second, foraging rates increased until chimpanzees were 1 year old, after which they remained stable, but foraging bout durations and % times continued to increase with age. This implies that by 1 year of age, infants were foraging as often as adult chimpanzees–which makes sense because chimpanzee infants foraged whenever their mothers did by this age [ 4 , 55 , 94 ]–but that they needed to forage longer per bout as they aged because they needed to supplement maternal milk with progressively more solid foods. Findings at other sites similarly showed that chimpanzee infants did not start feeding regularly on non-milk foods until close to 1 year of age, and that the overall time they spent foraging progressively increased through development [ 19 , 21 – 23 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Females at Ngogo occasionally share substantial amounts of premasticated food with their infants, and the food most often shared is also the most commonly eaten by the chimpanzees (a fig, Ficus mucuso ) [ 70 , 94 ]. We previously found that primiparous females shared premasticated food with their infants less often than multiparous females [ 94 ]. It may thus be that the infants of primiparous females needed to forage independently more to meet their dietary needs because their mothers shared less food with them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of infant age and sex, and maternal parity on the interaction of lactation with infant feeding development in chimpanzees

et al. 2022

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The interaction between infant feeding and maternal lactational physiology influences female inter-birth intervals and mediates maternal reproductive trade-offs. We investigated variation in feeding development in 72 immature wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda, and made inferences about maternal lactation over the course of infancy. We compared the percentage (%) of time that mothers nursed infants as a function of infant age and assessed how hourly rates and bout durations of nursing and foraging varied in association with differences in offspring age, sex, and maternal parity. Nursing % times, rates and durations were highest for infants ≤ 6 months old but did not change significantly from 6 months to 5 years old. Nursing continued at a decreasing rate for some 5- to 7-year-olds. Infants ≤ 6 months old foraged little. Foraging rates did not change after 1 year old, but foraging durations and the % time devoted to foraging increased with age. Independent foraging probably became a dietary requirement for infants at 1 year old, when their energy needs may have surpassed the available milk energy. Infants spent as much time foraging by the time they were 4 to 5 years old as adults did. No sex effect on infant nursing or foraging was apparent, but infants of primiparous females had higher foraging rates and spent more time foraging than the infants of multiparous females did. Although no data on milk composition were collected, these findings are consistent with a working hypothesis that like other hominoids, chimpanzee mothers maintained a fixed level of lactation effort over several years as infants increasingly supplemented their growing energy, micronutrient and hydration needs via independent foraging. Plateauing lactation may be a more widespread adaptation that allows hominoid infants time to attain the physiology and skills necessary for independent feeding, while also providing them with a steady dietary base on which they could rely consistently through infancy, and enabling mothers to maintain a fixed, predictable level of lactation effort.

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“…Chimpanzees sometimes share meat from carcasses that they control 181,182 and food sharing is associated with elevation of oxytocin which may enhance bonding 183 . Plant foods are rarely shared among adult chimpanzees in the wild, but female chimpanzees regularly share plant foods with their offspring 185–187 . If the MRCA formed relatively stable polygynous breeding bonds, as the Ngogo chimpanzees do, sharing and exchange relationships might have been formed with bond partners, and represent a form of joint parental care.…”

Section: Implications For Understanding the Evolution Of Paternal Car...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathways to paternal care in primates

Rosenbaum

Silk

2022

Evolutionary Anthropology

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Natural selection will favor male care when males have limited alternative mating opportunities, can invest in their own offspring, and when care enhances males' fitness. These conditions are easiest to fulfill in pair-bonded species, but neither male care nor stable "breeding bonds" that facilitate it are limited to pair-bonded species.We review evidence of paternal care and extended breeding bonds in owl monkeys, baboons, Assamese macaques, mountain gorillas, and chimpanzees. The data, which span social/mating systems and ecologies, suggest that there are multiple pathways by which conditions conducive to male care can arise. This diversity highlights the difficulty of making inferences about the emergence of male care in early hominins based on single traits visible in the fossil record. We discuss what types of data are most needed and the questions yet to be answered about the evolution of male care and extended breeding bonds in the primate order.

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Premasticated food transfer by wild chimpanzee mothers with their infants: Effects of maternal parity, infant age and sex, and food properties

Cited by 9 publications

References 51 publications

Maternal behavior in Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) is modulated by mother-offspring characteristics and socioecological factors

Maternal behavior in Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) is modulated by mother-offspring characteristics and socioecological factors

Effects of infant age and sex, and maternal parity on the interaction of lactation with infant feeding development in chimpanzees

Pathways to paternal care in primates

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