Abstract
Callitrichidae is a unique primate family not only in terms of the large number of food transfers to infants but also for the prevalence of transfers that are initiated by the adults. It has been hypothesized that, as well as provisioning infants, callitrichid food transfers might function to teach the receiver what food types to eat. If food provisioning has a teaching function, we would expect successful food transfers to be more likely with food types that are novel to the juveniles. We would also expect juveniles to learn about foods from those transfers. We introduced different types of food (some familiar, some novel) to wild groups of golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia). While novel foods were not more successfully transferred than familiar food in the experiment, transfers were more successful (i.e., the receiver obtained food) when the donor had previous experience with that food. Moreover, we found evidence suggesting that food transfers influenced the future foraging choices of juveniles. Our findings are consistent with the first and third criteria of the functional definition of teaching, which requires that tutors (the adults) modify their behavior in the presence of a naïve individual (a juvenile), and that the naïve individual learns from the modified behavior of the demonstrator. Our findings are also consistent with the provisioning function of food transfer. Social learning seems to play an important role in the development of young tamarins’ foraging preferences.
Highlights
Food provisioning is a form of parental care
During the first phase of this study, 233 attempted food transfers were made by 32 adults golden lion tamarins and ten juveniles, from six different groups
There were a total of 1243 successful ingestion events, so golden lion tamarins in the first phase of the experiment obtained 9% of ingested food items from food transfers
Summary
Food provisioning is a form of parental care. Adult–juvenile food transfers can have short-term benefits for the recipient as they allow the offspring to receive nutrients and energy that it might not have had otherwise Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil hypothesis of food provisioning) Food provisioning can have additional longer-term benefits. While transferring food, adults can transfer information about the food items’ quality or processing techniques. If information or skills are transferred, this could help young reach nutritional independency by allowing them to learn about diet breadth and/or foraging skills of the species (a.k.a. the informational hypothesis) The two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, as receivers of a food transfer will typically obtain nutritional value from the food item when they acquire information about its palatability or quality The two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, as receivers of a food transfer will typically obtain nutritional value from the food item when they acquire information about its palatability or quality (G.R. Brown et al 2004)
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