Maternal Care in Relation to Infant Behavior in the Squirrel Monkey

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Abstract
Observation of a mother squirrel monkey with her dead infant and an experiment with another mother and her viable 10-day-old infant are used to support the following points. (1) The typical, passive maternal care given by the squirrel monkey mother to her young is in part influenced by the behavior of the infant. (2) In response to certain behaviors of the infant, the squirrel monkey mother can exhibit behaviors that for her are otherwise improbable, including bipedal carrying and cradling of the infant. Implications of these findings for inferring the origin of bipedalism in primates are considered.

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