The influence of repeated motherhood on periparturitional behavior in cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

Abstract

We studied the influence of parity on periparturitional behavior by quantitativelY comparing the behavior of 10 primiparous and 11 multiparous cynomolgus macaques. We found a considerable number of significant differences, some of them affirming the outcome of previous descriptive studies. During

The influence of rearing conditions on maternal behavior in cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

“…Like rhesus (Brandt and Mitchell, 1971), pigtailed (Goodlin and Sackett, 1983), and most other macaques (Jolly, 1972), cynomolgus macaques generally give birth at night (Suzuki et al, 1990;Timmermans and Vossen, 1996). When the natural circumstances are borne in mind, the adequacy of investigating the anogenital zone and supporting the neonate at birth is obvious.…”

“…The mother has to bring the infant into ventroventral position, whereby the neonate is nestled between the mother's thighs and arms, pro-viding her an opportunity to lick herself and the neonate and to handle the placenta (Timmermans and Vossen, 1996). The ventroventral position gives the infant benefit of the mother's body heat and enables it to reach her teats.…”

“…The importance of licking the neonate's fur dry probably depends on the prevailing temperature. It certainly seems important to free the neonate from the placenta by eating it or by biting through the umbilical cord,because a placenta dangling from the infant is a hindrance for locomotion (Timmermans and Vossen, 1996).…”

Births in Captive Stump-Tailed Macaques (Macaca arctoides)

“…Mothers usually did not eat as they usually would for 2-3 days before parturition, which supports the hypothesis that consumption of the placenta provided nutrition and energy to the mothers. Timmermans and Vossen [1996] have reported that multiparous mothers were more skillful and efficient before, during and after the birth than primiparous mothers. However, parity did not seem to affect parturition behaviour in our case studies.…”

“…Continuous video data and still photographs were collected throughout the entire parturition process. The parturitions and their associated activities were divided into 3 phases: prepartus, from the first observed onset of labour till the infant became visible in the birth canal; partus, from the time the infant was first visible until it had entirely emerged from the mother's body, and postpartus, from the infant delivery until the consumption of the placenta [Timmermans and Vossen, 1996;Turner et al, 2010]. Scan sampling [Altmann, 1974] was also used to record the location of parturition and the involvement of the group members before, during and after parturition.…”