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Allomaternal Care By Conspecifics Impacts Activity Budgets Of Colobus Guereza Mothers, Dominique L. Raboin

Theses and Dissertations

In primate societies, caring for infants involves nursing, protection, provisioning, and carrying - all energetically taxing states for mothers. The cost of holding and carrying clinging infants often constrains mothers from moving and traveling, potentially reducing their food and energy intake. Alternatively, when an infant is physically separated from their mother they are at risk of predation from birds of prey or other large mammals. This requires a high level of vigilance from mothers, often further deterring them from acquiring the food and energy that they need. Allomaternal care (AMC) is hypothesized to provide mothers with a way to safely …