Title
How rhesus monkey infants budget their time between mothers and peers
Author
Jonge, G.D.
Dienske, H.
Luxemburg, E.A.V.
Ribbens, L.
Primatencentrum TNO
Publication year
1981
Abstract
Social play between two rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) infants takes place mainly when they are both not in body contact with their mothers. This suggests that social play and mother-infant body contact are potential competitors in the infants' time budgets. We investigated whether the presence of a playmate changed the duration of mother-infant body contact during the first 6 months of life. A decrease in contact would favour play opportunity. Mother-infant pairs were observed alternately alone and together with another pair. Resting, which always occurs during on-mother, was not reduced in the presence of a peer. Body contact during activity phases was reduced in most playing pairs, but only to a large extent in pairs which showed relatively high levels of contact in the situation without a peer. Play opportunity was further increased by synchronization of the rest-activity cycles of the two infants; this occurred without a reduction in mother-infant interactions. No influences by mothers on play opportunity were demonstrated, except that strong maternal interference with resting reduced activity synchronization. © 1981.
Subject
Biology
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TNO identifier
229068
ISSN
0003-3472
Source
Animal Behaviour, 29 (2), 598-609
Document type
article