Development of activity patterns, social interactions, and exploratory behavior in infant tufted capuchins (Cebus apella)

Abstract

Early organization of activity states was studied in 17 tufted capuchin (Cebus upella) infants from birth to 11 weeks of age. Development of exploration and interactions with mothers and other group members were studied in 14 of these infants up to the age of 1 year. Activity profiles changed from 3 to 8 weeks as infants began to move off mothers and explore their environments. From 2 to 6 months time with mothers decreased; time alone increased correspondingly. Time spent with other group members did not vary significantly over the first year. By 7-9 months capuchin infants spent more time alone or with other group members than with mothers, although weaning was still not completed by the end of the first year. Simple environmental exploration began in the 2nd month and reached stable levels by 4 months. Complex manipulation of food and objects first began at 3-4 months and increased to stable levels in the second half of the first year. Some preliminary differences were evident between infants living in indoor cages and those living in indoor/ outdoor runs. Infants in cages spent less time in dorsal contact with mothers, and less time in social play and proximity to other animals than those in runs. Instead, infants in cages spent more time alone and engaged in more manipulation of food. Some measures of social and exploratory behavior showed a high degree of variability which may be usefal in exploring individual differences in infant temperament or reactivity. 0 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.*

Facial Displays in Young Tufted Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus apella): Appearance, Meaning, Context and Target

“…As in many other species [Redican, 1975], lip-smacking is the first display performed by capuchin infants since it is adaptive to perform affiliative displays and not aggressive ones [ChevalierSkolnikoff, 1974]. At about 2 months of age, capuchins begin to explore their environment and to actively engage in social interactions [Byrne and Suomi, 1995], and at about 3 months they are motorically skilled enough to embark on social play [Fragaszy, 1990]. At 1.5-3 months of age, after a period during which infants mouth objects by opening their mouth in a somehow exaggerated manner, the play face display appears.…”

“…In spite of the fact that an infant spends about 57% of the time with its mother during the first year of life [Byrne and Suomi, 1995], the mother is the partner that exchanges the smallest number of facial displays with the infant (for similar findings, see Chevalier-Skolnikoff [1974] and Maestripieri and Call [1996]), possibly because newborns spend most of their time on their mother's back, coming to her belly only for nursing [Fragaszy et al, 2004]. ChevalierSkolnikoff [1974] argued that during the first weeks of life the communication between mother and infant is almost exclusively in the tactile/sensory mode and that, as the infant matures, while the interactions with the mother continue to be primarily tactile, those with other group members are mostly visual.…”

“…Table 2 reports the timing of physical (percent brain weight at birth/maternal brain weight) and behavioural milestones (the age at which the infant is for the first time off the mother and the age at which the infant spends more than 50% of the time off the carrier) as well as the timing appearance of 4 facial [Byrne and Suomi, 1995]. As in many other species [Redican, 1975], lip-smacking is the first display performed by capuchin infants since it is adaptive to perform affiliative displays and not aggressive ones [ChevalierSkolnikoff, 1974].…”

“…Communicative Function Newborns are extremely attractive [Byrne and Suomi, 1995;Silk, 1999]. Group members approach them by performing affiliative behaviours and lip-smacking ( fig.…”

Terrestriality of Wild Sapajus cay (Illiger, 1815) as Revealed by Camera Traps

“…Capuchin research has traditionally been carried out through direct observations, such as scan sampling or behaviour sampling [Izawa, 1980;Byrne and Suomi, 1995;Di Bitetti, 2001;Moura and Lee, 2004], but recently, some studies have also used camera-trapping to study primates [Olson et al, 2012;Tan et al, 2013;Bezerra et al, 2014]. Since capuchin monkeys ( Sapajus spp.)…”