title: The regulation of maternal behaviour in marmosets and tamarins.
abstract: This article reviews a long-term investigation into the roles of (1) experience obtained with infants during development and postnatally, and (2) levels of reproductive-steroid hormones during late pregnancy, in the regulation of maternal caregiving motivation and behaviour in the red-bellied tamarin (Saguinus labiatus) and the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) (family Callitrichidae, Order Primates). Both observational studies, e.g. post hoc analysis of the relationship between developmental caregiving experience and infant-rearing success, and manipulative studies, e.g. direct analysis of the effects of sex-steroid administration on maternal motivation, were performed. In red-bellied tamarins, a breeding female's infant-rearing success was related to its caregiving experience obtained during development and postpartum/postnatally. In multiparous females lacking developmental caregiving experience, postpartum maternal caregiving behaviour and infant-rearing success were related to prepartum urinary oestradiol levels. In nulliparous common marmosets, caregiving of infant-siblings increased as a consequence of physical interaction with parent-infant dyads, late pregnancy, and exposure to late pregnancy-like levels of progesterone and oestradiol. The evidence for a dual mechanism of endocrine and experiential regulation of caregiving in these monkeys is discussed in terms its evolution and function.
authors.affiliation: Anthropologisches Institut, Universität Zürich-Irchel, Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Pryce