Physiology of maternal separation in a bonnet macaque infant

A bonnet monkey infant (M. radiata) was monitored both physiologically and behaviorally during a separation experiment in which both its mother and other conspecifiecs were removed from its social group leaving the bonnet infant with three adult pigtailed females. The separated infant exhibited the characteristic slouched posture of depression and physiological changes including decreases in the heart rate and body temperature, increases in cardiac arrhythmias, and alterations in sleep patterns, as has been previously described in separated pigtailed infants. Persistent decreases in heart rate and body temperature were noted following reunion with the mother, possibly reflecting a disturbance in the mother-infant relationship secondary to the mother's having come into estrus during the period of separation. This study indicates that the physiological correlates of maternal separation previously described in pigtailed infants are not species specific.     

新疆吐鲁番加依墓地的母婴合葬现象

新疆吐鲁番加依墓地位于吐鲁番市亚尔乡加依村南3公里的戈壁台地上,其年代大致在青铜-早期铁器时代。本文结合人类骨骼考古学、死亡考古学与临床医学的方法,对其中4例疑似的母婴合葬墓（M31、M70、M222、M224）进行了研究。通过对墓葬中遗骸的生物学信息以及埋藏位置信息的采集与分析,判断这4座墓葬中的个体关系应当为母亲和其婴儿。其中,3座墓葬中的母婴个体为分娩后死亡,1座墓葬中的母亲和胎儿个体死于孕期或者分娩过程中。造成这些个体死亡的直接原因可能是难产和产褥期疾病,营养不良和感染性疾病等因素也增加了他们的死亡风险。这4座墓葬一方面体现了古代女性生育所面临的困难,一方面体现了加依先民们对于母婴联结以及“灵魂”的认识,将母婴葬于一室不仅是对死者的关怀,更是对生者的告慰。本文的研究旨在为解读古代遗址中的母婴合葬墓提供一个新视角。     

Dyadic interactions of infant lowland gorillas in an outdoor exhibit compared to an indoor holding area

The behavior of two lowland gorilla mother-infant pairs living in a social group at Zoo Atlanta was compared in an indoor holding area vs. an outdoor exhibit. Focal animal data were collected for each pair during 30-min observation sessions over 24 days, alternating between indoors and outdoors. A variety of individual and social behaviors differed in the two conditions, particularly infant behaviors and infant-controlled behaviors. Mothers and infants spent more time closer together inside than outside, and infants left mothers more and mothers approached infants more outside than inside. Additional differences included more object examination and solitary play by the infants, and more feeding by the mothers, outside. Mothers autogroomed more and infants engaged in more self-manipulation inside. Additionally, there were significantly more aggressive display behaviors directed toward the mother-infant pairs inside than outside, and the adults engaged in coprophagy inside but not outside. A variety of other behaviors measured did not change between the two environments. There was a clear effect on behavior of the different housing conditions in which the gorillas were kept. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Mother-Young Feeding Synchrony and Early Food Selection Differences in Eulemur fulvus

I tested the hypothesis that mother-young cofeeding correlates with a systematic similar food selection in wild Mayotte brown lemurs (Eulemur fulvus). I simultaneously recorded the feeding behavior of 4 maternal dyad members, from infant birth to weaning, and 10–12 mo of juvenile age, during 10-min focal periods, each separated by 5-min intervals over 10 mo. I recorded the solid food items selected for each feeding behavior at the level of specific plant part, along with the distance between the 2 individuals. I considered feeding behaviors simultaneous (between the young lemurs and their mothers) when the young began to eat a food item while the mother was already eating, regardless of the separation distance. During their first year, most of the feeding events of the young brown lemurs were initiated by their mothers. However, infants also selected different food items from those chosen by their mothers in almost one-third of cases, and the food selection dissimilarity was not attributable to an increase in the distance of separation. For juveniles, dissimilar food selection was significantly lower and linked to an increase in mother-juvenile separation distance. Thus, the substantial proportion of dissimilarity in solid foods selected by the infant during the synchronized feeding behaviors strongly suggests that social influences were not food-specific and might instead drive the acquisition of group feeding activity rhythm rather than food selection habits.     

Dusk calling in barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus): Demand for social shelter

Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) show an increase in vocal activity at dusk. This investigation showed that these vocalizations were mainly produced by juveniles from six to 18 months of age, during their attempts to achieve body contact with their mothers, thereby building up a sleeping cluster. The “dusk calling” consisted of protracted sequences of variable vocal patterns which always ceased when the juvenile joined its preferred sleeping cluster. The length of the sequences corresponded to the time it took the juvenile to be accepted into a sleeping cluster. One-year-old juveniles exhibited the highest vocal activity. The similarity of the results obtained in two outdoor enclosures in France and of those in the field (Morocco) indicated that dusk calling is common to this species, and not a behavior unique to captive animals. © Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

A method to soothe and promote sleep in crying infants utilizing the transport response

Download : Download video (25MB)     

Mother-infant relationships in bonnet macaques: Sources of variation in proximity

Family composition is an important predictor of variation in proximity among captive bonnet macaque (Macaca radiata) mothers and their infants. Infants that have several immature sisters in the group are initially more independent that infants with fewer sisters, but as they reach 6 months of age infants with several sisters become less independent than their peers. The effects of the presence of juvenile females on the relative independence of their infant siblings seem to be related to the fact that the members of families with several immature females are the targets of more aggression than are the members of other families.     

Food transfer between mother and infant chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains National Park,Tanzania

We studied food transfer between chimpanzee mothers and infants in the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania. The rate of infant solicitation for food dramatically increased in the second year of life, then gradually decreased and, in the seventh year, virtually disappeared. The pattern of the ontogeny of food sharing precisely followed that of solicitation because mothers shared food only when requested to do so by their infants. The success rate of solicitation, however, did not display extreme changes across ages. Food that was difficult to process was shared more frequently because it was more likely to be demanded by infants. We defined food retrieval as an infant’s recovery of leftovers discarded by its mother. Food types retrieved were often those that are difficult to process and were also likely to be shared by mothers. However, infants tended to solicit small, difficult food types for sharing while they often retrieved the remains of large, difficult food types. The function of food sharing and food retrieval lies in an infant’s learning food types that it cannot easily obtain or process by itself. The level of competition for food between mothers and infants remained low throughout infancy. We noted no particular characteristic about foods from which infants were displaced by mothers. As infants grew older, they increased the distance between themselves and mothers that became more aggressive.     

Ecological constraints on the development of infant independence in rhesus

Mother-infant dyads were observed among three populations of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in India and Nepal. This research had three purposes: 1) to examine the influences of maternal activities (ie, feeding, locomotion, and rest) and arboreality on the early development of infant independence; 2) to determine whether interpopulation differences in the development of infant independence can be accounted for by correlated differences in maternal time budgets and the amount of time infants spent on the ground; and 3) to explore how patterns of maternal care may or may not mitigate increased risk of infant mortality resulting from human harassment. Despite significant interpopulation differences in maternal time budgets, the amount of time infants spent on the ground, and the degree of harassment the animals experienced, few interpopulation differences in infant development could be found. The application of a multiple regression/ correlation analysis revealed that the development of infant independence was affected by the above factors but that those factors were acting in complementary ways to constrain development and to minimize the differences across populations.