Food-Sharing in Cotton-Top Tamarins (Saguinus oedipus)

Abstract

Food-sharing behaviour was observed in 9 captive families of cotton-top tamarins (range 4–14 individuals per group), during meals of fresh fruit. Food was transferred to infants by their parents and older sibs in response to begging, and was also offered to them without prior solicitation. Older, mature, reproductively suppressed individuals shared more than young immature monkeys. Infants in larger families received more food than those in smaller ones, though individuals in smaller families shared more. Transfer to infants increased to a maximum at 12 weeks of age and then declined gradually. At one year of age they no longer received food from others. Food sharing by older siblings is a form of helping behaviour which may increase their inclusive fitness, and benefit parents, both directly, by reducing the costs they incur in rearing young, and indirectly, by increasing the amount of food available to infants.

Begging, Stealing, and Offering: Food Transfer in Nonhuman Primates

“…In callitrichids, which exhibit cooperative breeding systems in which twin offspring are reared communally, infants appear to be almost entirely provisioned by others when they begin to eat solid food, before gradually developing into independent feeders (e.g. Hoage, 1982;Feistner and Price, 1990;RuizMiranda et al, 1999). The high level of food transfer in callitrichids may be related to their cooperative breeding system.…”

“…For example, as breeding females are able to become pregnant while suckling the previous set of offspring, fathers may be selected to provision offspring with solid food if this allows their mate to allocate resources to the next set of offspring, while mothers may play a lesser role in provisioning as they bear the metabolic costs of gestation and lactation (Feistner and Price, 1990). Both parents may be predicted to transfer food to infants more frequently than do alloparents.…”

“…A number of studies of free-ranging callitrichids report that infant survival is positively correlated with the number of helpers in the group (moustached tamarins: Garber et al, 1984;common marmosets: Koenig, 1995;cotton-top tamarins: Snowdon, 1996; lion tamarins: Bales et al, 2000). Studies of captive cotton-top tamarins have shown that infants in large groups receive more food in total than those in smaller groups (Feistner and Price, 1990;Price, 1992b). The presence of helpers is also reported to significantly increase offspring survival in other mammalian species in which helpers provision offspring, including silverbacked and golden jackals (Canis mesomelas and…”

“…Adults in several species of callitrichid primate have been reported to 'offer' food to offspring by holding a food item in an outstretched hand and emitting a vocalization that is similar to the one used during begging and appears to result in an infant approaching and taking the food item (e.g. Moody and Menzel, 1976;Brown and Mack, 1978;Hoage, 1982;Ferrari, 1987;Feistner and Price, 1990;. A number of primate species have been reported to give 'food calls' on locating a patch of food (including spider monkeys:…”

“…In fact, surprisingly little is known about the development of independent feeding in primates (Nicolson, 1986;Feistner and Price, 2000). However, in captive callitrichid primates, both begging and provisioning peak around the time of weaning (10-14 weeks), while food items such as large insects continue to be transferred until a later age (Hoage, 1982;Feistner and Price, 1990;Price and Feistner, 2001). Begging success appears to remain relatively constant during the transition to independent feeding (Feistner and Price, 2000;Price and Feistner, 2001), suggesting that adults respond directly to the begging levels of infants.…”