Abstract
Among non-human primates, Pan troglodytes and Leontopithecus rosalia are reported to show frequent parent-offspring food sharing. If sharing of solid foods could lead to early weaning, females in these species would reduce the energetic (nutrient transformation) and reproductive (delayed fertility) costs of lactation. Age at weaning in the two species is compared with the 95% confidence limits of the regressions that relate weaning age to adult female body weight, gestation length and age of sexual maturity in 52 primate species, since correlations with these variables must be taken into account to assess the food sharing-early weaning hypothesis statistically. P. troglodytes and L. rosalia fall within the confidence limits of the regressions in all cases but one, leading to rejection of the hypothesis. Food learning, in association with diet breadth, appears to be better supported as an alternative function for parent-offspring food sharing.
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