Abstract
For all mammalian females, becoming a mother brings significant changes to their life. A dependent infant increases foraging demands during lactation and requires direct investment in maternal care. These new requirements might trigger changes in female behavior, such as reduced allocation of time to resting or social activities. We investigated how the maternal status affects time budgets in female Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) (N = 17) in a free-ranging provisioned group in Gibraltar. We collected behavioral data (490 h) after infants were born during two periods. We found that females with dependent offspring had spent a reduced proportion of time resting, vigilant, and self-grooming compared with females without dependent offspring. Females with dependent offspring also groomed other females less often and spent 50% more time in proximity to other group members, particularly males, than females without dependent infants. Females with dependent offspring received 28% more grooming than other females received. This difference was due to interactions with males, which might be connected to the specific role of Barbary macaque males as primary infant caretakers. There was no change in feeding time of mothers compared with other females. We conclude that changes in the time budget of mothers in the provisioned population were related to the need to attend their infants, rather than increased foraging demands. Barbary macaque social organization and behavioral strategies give rise to complex effects of infant care on maternal social interactions and time budget.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Eric Shaw, John Cortes, Damian Holmes, and Dale Laguea of the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society (GOHNS) for their support during field work. Thanks to David Boukal, Barbora Kuběnová, and Vedrana Šlipogor for their useful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript and to the editor Joanna Setchell and two anonymous reviewers for insightful comments, which helped to significantly improve the quality of the manuscript. This work was supported by the Czech-Austrian Aktion Program for Cooperation in Science and Education (Project 50p13; Project 53p6) (MK, BW), Zdeněk Veselovský student prize from ČSEtS (VR, MK) and GAJU No. 04-151/2016/P (VR, MK).
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MK and SL conceived the idea; MK and VR collected data; BW provided access to study site and resources; MK and BW acquired funding; MK statistical analysis; MK and SL prepared the initial draft; MK and SL wrote the manuscript with comments and edits from VR and BW.
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Konečná, M., Roubová, V., Wallner, B. et al. The Effect of Maternal Status on Time Budget in Female Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus). Int J Primatol 44, 540–557 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-023-00360-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-023-00360-z