MATERNAL BEHAVIOUR IN LESSER BUSHBABY (GALAGO SENEGALENSIS MOHOLI) UNDER SEMI-NATURAL CONDITIONS

Maternal behaviour in two female bushbabies, following the birth of a pair of twins to one female and three successive sets of twins to the other, over an unbroken period of 90 days is fully described. A mass of objective data in the form of time scores and counts of activities is illustrated and analysed descriptively. Five distinct, major caretaking acts are distinguished and described in turn. These are nursing or suckling, grooming, changing infants from one nest box to another, retrieving and nest-building. Maternal behaviour can be said to go through three fairly distinct stages. For the first 2 weeks, approximately, maternal behaviour is fairly intense. The infants are dependent on their mothers, feed from her exclusively and require her help if they get into difficulty. By the end of this period the infants have become very active, leave the nest box of their own accord and soon begin to take solid food and drink from the milk container. They are noticeably less dependent on their mother and maternal behaviour, in terms of suckling and changing the infants from one nest box to the other, has noticeably declined. On the other hand the mother spends more time retrieving the infants back to the nest box. By the end of 6 weeks the infants are more active and less dependent. Time devoted to suckling has decreased even further and during the very active periods of the day, the first and last 50 min, it has practically disappeared. Changing from one nest box to the other has ceased entirely, retrieving is very infrequent and generally unsuccessful. Between 10 and 11 weeks infants are fully independent of their mothers. Although they still spend time resting with their mothers, which they will do right through adulthood, no suckling was observed after this time. The only maternal activity which does not change is grooming which is fairly intense throughout and, in fact, never ceases. From being part of the maternal behaviour pattern it becomes a characteristic of general social interaction in which all animals groom one another frequently. Although the stages through which maternal behaviour passes are distinct enough, the attitude of the mother fluctuates considerably throughout. At times, even when the infants are very young, she ignores them completely. She may simply watch them, ignore them or even jump away from them. At other times she is exhaustingly diligent, particularly in retrieving them even when they are well passed the age when they need her care. The mother does not introduce the infants to solid food nor to the milk container. The infant locates these of its own accord. During short episodes when the animals are alarmed at some disturbance the mother shows no obvious concern for the infants. Up until about 10 weeks of age the infants will retreat of their own accord to the nest box when the alarm call is sounded. After 10 weeks they will generally follow the adults to the upper branches and remain alert until the alarm is over. © 1969 S. Karger AG, Basel.