Infant spatial relationships with adult males in a wild primate: males as mitigators or magnifiers of intergenerational effects of early adversity?

ABSTRACT: Adult male mammals can provide infants with protection and enhance their access to resources. They can also pose a risk to infants, either directly through infanticide or other aggression, or indirectly by placing infants at increased risk of conspecific or heterospecific conflict. Both benefits and costs may be especially important for offspring born to mothers in poor condition. Here we present the most detailed analysis to date of the influence of adult non-human primate males on a wide range of infant behaviors, and a description of the predictors of individual infants' proximity to adult males. We show that the number of adult males near an infant predicts many infant behavioral traits, including aspects of the mother-infant relationship, infant activity budgets, and the frequency of

SUBMITTER: Zipple MN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11071619 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature