Mother-Infant Interactions in a Free-Ranging Population of Pigtail Macaques (Macaca nemestrina)

The Southern pigtail macaque (<em>Macaca nemestrina</em>) is an understudied species in the Cercopithecidae family distributed in Southeast Asia. In this field study, I focused on interactions of Southern pigtail macaques to better understand mother-infant relationships. I observed five to six mother-infant dyads from April 2016 to September 2016 in the Segari Melintang Forest Reserve, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. I used focal sampling methods to score mother and infant behaviors from two ethograms. I hypothesized that as infant age increased, mother and infant behaviors seen to be important in pigtail macaque mother-infant captive studies, would change over time. As infant age increased, mother permissive behaviors and mother-infant contact duration showed significant negative correlations. A GLMM of mother permissive behavior as the outcome variable only showed infant age as a significant predictor variable. From the infant’s perspective, as infants increased in age, mother-infant contact duration showed a significant negative correlation, while mother-directed vocalizations showed no association. A GLMM of mother-infant contact duration as the outcome variable showed only infant age as a significant predictor variable. Infants made more breaks in the mother-infant dyad between 100-350 days of age. Adult females and juveniles were significantly more likely to be within 1-5 m proximity of mothers as infants aged. These data show that mother permissive behavior, mother-infant contact duration and proximity are crucial elements to consider when examining wild pigtail macaque mother-infant relationships and infant independence.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Primate Behavior

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Dura, Emily

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lori K. Sheeran
• Mary Radeke
• Nadine Ruppert

• mother-infant
• pigtail
• macaque
• permissive
• proximity
• behavior
• Animal Studies
• Social and Behavioral Sciences

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/632

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.cwu.edu:etd-1642