Maternal and Nonmaternal Infant Handling in Colobus vellerosus

Date
2018-05-09
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Abstract
This project investigated whether variation existed in durations of maternal and nonmaternal received by infants (when controlling for infant age) in wild Colobus vellerosus monkeys. I examined whether variation in handling durations was associated with infanticide risk using behavioral data collected from 16 infants ranging in age from newborn to 78 weeks. Maternal handling constituted the bulk of ‘total’ handling received by infants. Individuals varied in the duration of handling they received. Less maternal handling occurred in unstable groups, and male infants receiving more handling. Neither maternal nor nonmaternal handling responded to all infanticide risk factors. These results suggest that handling is a flexible behavior, but it is not yet entirely clear what factors handlers respond to, and why. One potential explanation is that, when infanticide poses a higher threat, mothers decrease infant-contact time to facilitate faster infant development while nonmothers increase handling as a form of protection.
Description
Keywords
Primatology, Infant care, Infant handling, Maternal care
Citation
Gibson, A. (2018). Maternal and nonmaternal infant handling in Colobus vellerosus (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/31912