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PubMed2004

Sexual communication between breeding male and female cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus), and its relationship to infant care.

Male cotton-top tamarins have been shown to be responsive to female scent cues of ovulation, and are known to actively participate in infant care during the time when their mates are fertile. We measured urinary androgen levels and glucocorticoids in seven father tamarins for the first month following the birth of infants to determine 1) whether male tamarins showed an androgen response to their mate's postpartum ovulation, 2) when androgens rise relative to ovulation, 3) whether there is a glucocorticoid response, and 4) whether males alter their parenting behavior during their mate's receptive period. All of the males showed a significant increase in urinary androgens prior to the female's postpartum LH peak, which indicated ovulation. The hormonal increase, which included estradiol, occurred 3-7 days prior to the female's LH peak at a time that coincided with the female's follicular period. Corticosterone levels also peaked during that time, but did not correlate with androgen changes. Fathers did not alter their daily infant-carrying patterns relative to the androgen increase or at the time of the mate's LH peak. We conclude that male cotton-top tamarins experience an increase in androgens that coincides with their mate's postpartum ovulation, which ensures optimal fertility. However, this sexual communication does not alter father-infant interactions, which already occur at a high rate in this species.

Androgens↗
PubMed2005

Adult-infant food transfer in common marmosets: an experimental study.

Infant marmosets and tamarins obtain solid food items from adults during and after the time of weaning. In addition to providing nutrients, food transfers may provide infants with the opportunity to learn about diet. The aim of this study was to investigate patterns of begging and food transfer in captive groups of common marmosets during tests with 1) palatable novel food, 2) unpalatable novel food, and 3) familiar food. Infants may gain an opportunity to learn about diet breadth by preferentially begging for novel rather than familiar items, while adults may facilitate infant learning by differing in their willingness to transfer food depending upon the food's novelty or palatability. In this study, infants exhibited more interest and begging with novel food items than with familiar ones. However, food transfers were not more likely to occur with novel foods than with familiar ones, and in fact adults were more likely to refuse infant begging attempts with novel foods. The palatability of the food also did not influence the rates of refusal and transfer: adults transferred palatable and unpalatable novel foods with similar frequencies. These results suggest that infant marmosets gain an opportunity to learn about diet breadth by begging for novel foods, but adults do not preferentially transfer novel or palatable food items.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2005

Effect of the enclosure on carriers' body weight loss in the cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus).

Infant carrying in cotton-top tamarins is a costly activity that results in weight loss by the fathers and helpers. However, to date, measures of carrying costs have been obtained in small indoor enclosures. We studied body weight changes in adult and subadult individuals from eight large groups (n > 5) for 9 weeks after the birth of infants. Four groups were housed in large indoor/outdoor enclosures (42 m(2) x 3.3 m high), and four were housed in small indoor enclosures (12 m(2) x 2.4 m high). All of the individuals were weighed regularly at least three times a week. Reproductive males lost more weight in the big indoor/outdoor enclosures (mean=6.51%) than in the small indoor ones, as did male adult helpers (mean=5.59%) and female adult helpers (mean=4.4%). Still-growing subadult individuals also lost weight in the big indoor/outdoor enclosures (mean=3.17%), although the differences did not reach significance (P=0.07). These results support the hypothesis that cotton-top tamarins living in more natural settings experience higher weight loss than those housed under less-natural conditions.

Animals↗
PubMed2007

Can knowledge of developmental processes illuminate the evolution of parental care?

There are two levels of investigation for elucidating the evolution of parental behavior. The macro level focuses on how parental behavior can evolve as an aspect of reproduction. The micro level focuses on how species variations in parental behavior evolve. Recently, modern evolutionary biology has turned to developmental biology as a source for information about how trait variability (the substrate upon which natural selection and other evolutionary mechanisms can operate) can emerge during development (called "evo-devo"). Application of this evo-devo approach to the phenomenon of parental behavior requires identification of those mechanisms that produce variations in developmental pathways leading to parental behavior. It is these variations that provide the phenotypes for the potential evolution of different parental behavior systems. Variations in rodent maternal behavior affect the development of the HPA and HPG axes in their offspring. These mechanisms are examined to reveal how such developmental variations could underlie the evolution of biparental behavior. Knowledge of the developmental mechanisms responsible for species variations in mammalian parental behavior systems may provide insight into those mechanisms that may have been involved in the evolution of parental behavior itself.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Effects of differential early experience upon parental behavior in Mus musculus.

Infant mice, reared with both parents were subjected to 1 of 4 different early experience contingencies at 3, 6, 9, and 12 days of age. Observation of parental behaviors following return of the pups to the nest revealed that mothers attended more to pups subjected to intermediate levels of stress, with the differences in maternal behavior persisting across the age span without change. Fathers exhibited marked changes in responsiveness to young across the ages observed, with their attention to young correlating directly with rate of ultrasonic calling by the young.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1994

Social and nutritional influences on the feeding of ring dove squab.

The effects of food deprivation on ring dove squabs' begging and pecking was examined during the period of transition from dependent to independent feeding. Food-deprived squabs begged more, pecked more, and were fed more by their parents than nondeprived squabs. When deprived, young squab primarily beg for food and older squab primarily peck. This difference may arise from the relative efficiencies of the two feeding responses at different ages. Additionally, parental state exerted control over the amount the squab pecked and begged. Parental food deprivation affected squab pecking, probably because hungry parents pecked more themselves and fed squabs less. Squab begging was not affected by parental food deprivation. However, parental separation from squab affected squab begging, as parents previously without squab were more likely to feed begging squab than were parents who were not separated from squab. Parental separation from squab did not affect squab pecking. The changes in the endogenous and exogenous controls of squab feeding allow for a great deal of plasticity in the transition from dependent to independent feeding.

Aging↗
PubMed2002

Parent-daughter relationships and social controls on fertility in female common marmosets, Callithrix jacchus.

This study examined the reproductive status of mothers and daughters to determine if parent-eldest daughter interactions would influence the daughter's fertility in the cooperatively breeding common marmoset, Callithrix jacchus. Twice weekly fecal samples were collected for hormonal analyses from seven daughters and their mothers and analyzed for cortisol, estradiol, and progesterone by EIA. Behavioral data were collected three times weekly while the daughters were under three conditions: natal family, after removing from the family and paring with a novel male, and after removing from the paired condition and placed back with the family (renatal). Under the natal condition, five of the seven daughters exhibited ovarian cycles while their mother was pregnant or displaying ovarian cycling. The five cycling daughters spent significantly more time initiating affilative behaviors with their mothers than with their fathers and showed significant changes in their behavior over the length of the ovarian cycle. However, aggression, submission, and sexual behaviors were very low for daughters in the natal phase. No differences between cortisol levels were found for a daughter and her mother. Cortisol levels showed a significant and sustained increase upon pairing within the first 20 days. All females but one cycled while paired. Six of the seven females were accepted back into the family after pairing and five of the seven females were ovulating. These results suggest that marmoset daughters are not necessarily reproductively suppressed while living with the family. Additionally, these data suggest that female marmosets that leave their family to explore mating opportunities with other groups may return to their family without reproductive or aggressive consequences.

Adrenal Glands↗
PubMed1982

Factors associated with parent labeling of children referred for conduct problems.

Clinicians have suggested that in some cases normal children have been inappropriately labeled as deviant by their parents and taken to psychological clinics for treatment. Reasons given for such inappropriate labeling have included factors such as the parents' marital distress and intolerance of normal child behavior. This study provided an empirical examination of the appropriateness or inappropriateness of parent labeling of 5--12-year-old children referred by their parents for treatment of conduct problems. The definition of inappropriate labeling derived by the present investigators required that the relationship between the child's actual behavior and the parent's negative label be so imperfect as to raise questions about the justification for the label, and that some identifiable factors other than the child's behavior account for the negative label. Three parent factors evaluated for their contribution to the parent negative label were martial distress, parent negative behavior toward the child, and parent distress about child deviant behavior. The statistical model of hierarchical multiple regression permitted analysis of this definition. The association found between observed child deviant behavior and the parent negative label suggested that parents of this sample perceived their children reasonably accurately. The three parent factors were found to be negligibly related to the parent label. Therefore, the conditions for inappropriate labeling of the children by the parents of this sample were not met.

Child↗
PubMed1993

Genetic mediation of infanticide and parental behavior in male and female domestic and wild stock house mice.

Infanticide is a reproductive strategy found in many mammals, especially rodents. The proportion of male and female house mice (Mus domesticus) that are either infanticidal or noninfanticidal is strain specific and varies widely from stock to stock. Male house mice also show strain-specific variation in the behavioral mechanisms that inhibit infanticidal individuals from killing their own offspring. The adult offspring generated from reciprocally crossed CF-1 and Wild stock house mice were tested for their behavior toward newborn pups. In male CF-1 x Wild hybrids, the proportion of infanticidal and noninfanticidal males matched with their maternal phenotype, whereas female CF-1 x Wild hybrids exhibited a proportion of behaviors typical of the CF-1 phenotype, regardless of their mother's genotype. Our results suggest three conclusions: first, that infanticide is a highly labile and heritable behavior in both sexes; second, that there is a sex difference in the genetic substrate that regulates the inheritance of infanticidal behavior; and third, that selection pressures in male mice may operate independently on the mechanisms that promote spontaneous infanticidal behavior versus the mechanisms that inhibit infanticide.

Agonistic Behavior↗
PubMed2005

Carotenoid-based nestling colouration and parental favouritism in the great tit.

While elaborate carotenoid-based traits in adult birds may have evolved as honest signals of individual quality in the context of sexual selection or other social interactions, the function of carotenoid-based colours in juveniles is less well understood. We investigated the hypothesis that carotenoid-based nestling colouration has evolved in response to parental preference of intensely coloured offspring during food provisioning. In a field experiment, we manipulated nestling plumage colouration by a carotenoid-supplementation and analysed the parental food provisioning behaviour before feather appearance and at the end of the nestling stage. Carotenoids per se did not influence the nestling's begging behaviour or parental feeding decisions and we found no evidence that carotenoid-based colouration in nestling great tits has a signalling function in parent-offspring interactions. Parents did not discriminate between intensely coloured and control offspring in their food provisioning and in accordance with this finding intensely coloured nestlings were not heavier or larger at the end of the nestling stage. Alternative explanations for the evolution of carotenoid-based colours in nestling birds are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Nipple development and pup-induced prolactin release in male rats treated prenatally with the antiandrogen flutamide.

While maternal female rats display increases in circulating prolactin (PRL) concentrations in response to pup exposure, parental male rats fail to show such an increase. One possible explanation for the lack of an acute PRL response in parental male rats is that males do not have nipples and therefore do not receive stimuli from the pups comparable to those experienced by parental female rats. To examine the contribution of nipple presence and possible stimulation, i.e. suckling, in this sexually differentiated endocrine response, male rats were exposed from days 12-15 of gestation to the antiandrogen flutamide. As adults, flutamide-exposed males had nipples. These males and a group of control males were castrated in adulthood and treated with a 21-day hormone regimen (estradiol and progesterone) that effectively stimulates parental behavior in adult rats. Following hormone treatment, mammary tissue from one set of flutamide-treated males was examined histologically to assess nipple and mammary gland development and responsiveness of these tissues to hormonal stimulation. Additional sets of flutamide-treated and control animals were tested for parental behavior. These latter animals were implanted with indwelling atrial cannulae on day 4 of parental behavior and subsequently bled on day 6 in the absence of young and on day 8 after presentation of young. PRL concentrations did not change in either the flutamide-treated or control parental males bled in the presence or absence of young.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Anilides↗
PubMed2004

Both oxytocin and vasopressin may influence alloparental behavior in male prairie voles.

Neuropeptides, especially oxytocin (OT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP), have been implicated in several features of monogamy including alloparenting. The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of OT and AVP in alloparental behavior in reproductively naïve male prairie voles. Males received intracerebroventricular (ICV) injections of artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF), OT, an OT receptor antagonist (OTA), AVP, an AVP receptor antagonist (AVPA), or combinations of OTA and AVPA and were subsequently tested for parental behavior. Approximately 45 min after treatment, animals were tested for behavioral responses to stimulus pups. In a 10-min test, spontaneous alloparental behavior was high in control animals. OT and AVP did not significantly increase the number of males that showed parental behavior, although more subtle behavioral changes were observed. Combined treatment with AVPA and OTA (10 ng each) significantly reduced male parental behavior and increased attacks; following a lower dose (1 ng OTA/1 ng AVPA), males were less likely to display kyphosis and tended to be slower to approach pups than controls. Since treatment with only one antagonist did not interfere with the expression of alloparenting, these results suggest that access to either OT or AVP receptors may be sufficient for the expression of alloparenting.

Aggression↗
PubMed2004

Prolactin-induced parental hyperphagia in ring doves: are glucocorticoids involved?

Hyperphagia is a prominent component of the parental behavior repertoire in male and female ring doves and is necessary in order for parents to successfully provision their growing young. Although previous studies implicate both prolactin and the endogenous glucocorticoid, corticosterone, in parental hyperphagia, the functional interactions between these two hormones in regulating changes in feeding activity have not been characterized. These studies examined the possibility that prolactin's orexigenic effects are mediated through the increased secretion of corticosterone. Twice-daily intracerebroventricular (icv) injection of prolactin increased plasma corticosterone concentration in non-breeding doves of both sexes, with males exhibiting more pronounced effects than females. To further test the importance of glucocorticoid signaling in prolactin-induced feeding responses, changes in food intake were investigated in icv prolactin-treated, non-breeding doves following icv infusion of the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU38486 or propylene glycol vehicle. No attenuation of prolactin-induced hyperphagia was observed in either sex following co-administration of RU38486 at a dose shown previously to block dexamethasone-induced feeding in doves. These findings suggest that elevated corticosterone titers in blood may contribute to the hyperphagia observed in response to prolactin, but corticosterone signaling through a mammalian-type glucocorticoid receptor is not essential.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Resource defense and juvenile hormone: the "challenge hypothesis" extended to insects.

As predicted for vertebrates by the challenge hypothesis, the endocrine system of invertebrates can respond to social stimuli to modulate aggression. Testosterone (T) is generally considered to moderate aggression associated with reproduction, i.e. the establishment of breeding territories, mate guarding and offspring defense; juvenile hormone (JH) serves an analogous function in burying beetles. Hemolymph titers of JH increase significantly in Nicrophorus orbicollis, a species with facultative biparental care, when challenged by an intruder to defend their resource. During the first 12 h after the discovery of a carcass, the necessary breeding resource, competition is intrasexual, and JH of males responds only to a challenge by males, and JH of females responds only to a challenge by female intruders. After this period, competition is intersexual, and JH increases significantly in both males and females challenged by an intruder of either sex. In contrast, JH titers in a nonparental species are much higher throughout the breeding season, and neither males nor females respond hormonally to an intruder. These findings support the challenge hypothesis and suggest that mating systems and breeding strategies can promote plastic responses in insect, as well as vertebrate, endocrine systems.

Aggression↗