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When Dads Help: Male Behavioral Care During Primate Infant Development

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Building Babies

Part of the book series: Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects ((DIPR,volume 37))

Abstract

In contrast to birds, male mammals rarely help to raise the offspring. Of all mammals, only among rodents, carnivores, and primates, males are sometimes intensively engaged in providing infant care (Kleiman and Malcolm 1981). Male caretaking of infants has long been recognized in nonhuman primates (Itani 1959). Given that infant care behavior can have a positive effect on the infant’s development, growth, well-being, or survival, why are male mammals not more frequently involved in “building babies”? We begin the chapter defining a few relevant terms and introducing the theory and hypotheses that have historically addressed the evolution of paternal care. We then review empirical findings on male care among primate taxa, before focusing, in the final section, on our own work on paternal care in South American owl monkeys (Aotus spp.). We conclude the chapter with some suggestions for future studies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Quantitative measures of male care in mammals, although occasionally cited, are problematic. Since Kleiman and Malcolm reviewed the then available data in 1981 much more and new information has become available, which sometimes lead to reclassifications, for example, of mating systems. Due to the lack of field data, their review mainly included data from captivity, which are not necessarily representative for patterns observed in the wild. Furthermore, the definitions of male care can vary substantially and thus the calculated proportions for different taxa.

  2. 2.

    We define social monogamy as a social system in which a single adult female and adult male each have only one social adult partner of the opposite sex for at least one, but usually several, breeding seasons. Such pairs will share and often defend a common home-range and may or may not develop a special pair-bond (Kappeler and van Schaik 2002; Martin et al. 2007; Wickler and Seibt 1983).

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to all students, volunteers, and assistants who helped us to collect the data. We also thank Mr. F. Middleton, Manager of Estancia Guaycolec, and Alfredo Casaretto (Director of Bellamar Estancias) for the continued support of the Owl Monkey Project. All research presented here is approved by the Formosa Province Council of Veterinarian Doctors, the Directorate of Wildlife, the Subsecretary of Ecology and Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Production. At the national level, the procedures were approved by the National Wildlife Directorate in Argentina and by the IACUC committees of the Zoological Society of San Diego (2000–2005) and of the University of Pennsylvania (2006–2010). MH was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (HU 1746/2-1). EFD acknowledges the financial support from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation (BCS-0621020), the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation, and the Zoological Society of San Diego. We thank the editors Kathryn Clancy, Katie Hinde, and Julienne Rutherford for inviting us to contribute to this volume, and the editors and anonymous reviewers for their comments.

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  1. Maren Huck

    Present address: Department Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, German Primate Centre, Kellnerweg 4, 37077, Göttingen, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Maren Huck & Eduardo Fernandez-Duque

  2. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral, Conicet, Argentina

    Eduardo Fernandez-Duque

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  1. Maren Huck
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  2. Eduardo Fernandez-Duque
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Correspondence to Maren Huck .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, 109 Davenport Hall, M/C 148, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    Kathryn B.H. Clancy

  2. , Department of HUman Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Katie Hinde

  3. , Comparative Primate Biology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, 60612, Illinois, USA

    Julienne N. Rutherford

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Huck, M., Fernandez-Duque, E. (2013). When Dads Help: Male Behavioral Care During Primate Infant Development. In: Clancy, K., Hinde, K., Rutherford, J. (eds) Building Babies. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects, vol 37. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4060-4_16

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