Archived Abstracts
Hormonal and experiential predictors of infant survivorship and maternal behavior in a monogamous primate (Callicebus cupreus).
Authors: Michael R. Jarcho, Sally P. Mendoza, Karen L. Bales
To better understand the roles that hormones and experience play in maternal behavior in a biparental primate species, we analyzed reproductive hormones (estrone (E1C) and pregnanediol (PdG)) from female titi monkeys (Callicebus cupreus). Samples were collected over 54 pregnancies. Pregnancies were categorized according to whether or not the infant survived, and by whether or not the mother had previously produced offspring. Mothers of infants that survived had a significantly greater drop in PdG, a progesterone metabolite, than mothers of infants that did not survive from the third trimester to the first week postpartum. Mothers with previous reproductive experience had a greater increase in PdG from the first to the third trimester than those without previous experience. Experienced mothers also showed greater increases in the E1C:PdG ratio from the first trimester to the third trimester and from the third trimester to the first week after birth. We also found a significant and positive relationship between third trimester PdG and maternal carrying and nursing during the first week after birth. These results suggest that elevated progesterone during late pregnancy followed by progesterone withdrawal immediately following parturition is a positive predictor of infant survivorship and maternal behavior in this species.
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