Forage quality and the costs of lactation for female gelada baboons

Field studies of two species of baboons suggest that Altmann's model of maternal time budgets (1980, Baboon Mothers and Infants, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press) provides a good qualitative but a poor quantitative fit to observed changes in the time that mothers spend feeding...

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Main Authors: Dunbar, R, Hannah-Stewart, L, Dunbar, P
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2002
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author Dunbar, R
Hannah-Stewart, L
Dunbar, P
author_facet Dunbar, R
Hannah-Stewart, L
Dunbar, P
author_sort Dunbar, R
collection OXFORD
description Field studies of two species of baboons suggest that Altmann's model of maternal time budgets (1980, Baboon Mothers and Infants, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press) provides a good qualitative but a poor quantitative fit to observed changes in the time that mothers spend feeding across infant age. We suggest that the poor quantitative fit might be explained by the fact that food quality varies across time, so that females are forced to feed for longer to gain the same nutrient intake when quality is poor. The hypothesis was tested with data from both gelada baboons, Theropithecus gelada, and Altmann's own baboons, Papio cynocephalus, with rainfall and ambient temperature as indices of vegetation nutritional quality. The results confirm that a three-factor model incorporating infant age, rainfall in the 2 preceding months and current ambient temperature provides a significantly improved fit to the observed data. © 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
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spelling oxford-uuid:a4023f34-5a82-49ce-a78b-9110969edeeb2022-03-27T02:30:57ZForage quality and the costs of lactation for female gelada baboonsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:a4023f34-5a82-49ce-a78b-9110969edeebEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2002Dunbar, RHannah-Stewart, LDunbar, PField studies of two species of baboons suggest that Altmann's model of maternal time budgets (1980, Baboon Mothers and Infants, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press) provides a good qualitative but a poor quantitative fit to observed changes in the time that mothers spend feeding across infant age. We suggest that the poor quantitative fit might be explained by the fact that food quality varies across time, so that females are forced to feed for longer to gain the same nutrient intake when quality is poor. The hypothesis was tested with data from both gelada baboons, Theropithecus gelada, and Altmann's own baboons, Papio cynocephalus, with rainfall and ambient temperature as indices of vegetation nutritional quality. The results confirm that a three-factor model incorporating infant age, rainfall in the 2 preceding months and current ambient temperature provides a significantly improved fit to the observed data. © 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
spellingShingle Dunbar, R
Hannah-Stewart, L
Dunbar, P
Forage quality and the costs of lactation for female gelada baboons
title Forage quality and the costs of lactation for female gelada baboons
title_full Forage quality and the costs of lactation for female gelada baboons
title_fullStr Forage quality and the costs of lactation for female gelada baboons
title_full_unstemmed Forage quality and the costs of lactation for female gelada baboons
title_short Forage quality and the costs of lactation for female gelada baboons
title_sort forage quality and the costs of lactation for female gelada baboons
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