Not all orangutan mothers raise their infants the same way
Sumatran orangutan mothers differ from one another in how they behave with and take care of their infants
2025-05-14
(Press-News.org)
A new study of wild Sumatran orangutans by researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) has found that mothers consistently differ in their maternal behaviors toward their infants, even after controlling for biological, social, and environmental factors. Mothers also consistently vary from one another in how flexibly they adjust their parenting as their infants grow. For this study, the researchers analysed data on six maternal behaviors collected over 15 years.
“Our study shows that Sumatran orangutan mothers are not all the same when it comes to parenting behaviors,” said Revathe Thillaikumar, a postdoctoral researcher at MPI-AB and first author of the study. “For example, we found that during the developmental period, some mothers consistently carried their infants more than others, while some terminated body contact more frequently than others. What was especially interesting is that these differences stayed consistent across the different infants of a mother, even when we accounted for factors known to affect maternal behavior.”
Because Sumatran orangutans have the longest known infant dependency of any nonhuman animal, the researchers also examined how maternal behavior changes as infants develop. “We found that mothers made flexible adjustments to their parenting behaviors and that they consistently differed from one another in how they made these adjustments. For example, while all mothers tended to terminate spatial proximity more frequently as their infants grew older, some mothers consistently did so more than others across all their offspring,” added Revathe.
The study examined six behaviors of wild Sumatran orangutan mothers towards their infants: body contact, staying close, carrying, and feeding nearby. These maternal behaviors are important because they influence how infants are able to learn skills directly from their mothers and how safely they can navigate dense canopies in a tropical rainforest. Data were collected at the Suaq Balimbing research site in Indonesia on 22 mother-infant pairs from over 6000 observational hours. The researchers found consistent differences in many of the studied maternal behaviors.
Caroline Schuppli, a group leader at MPI-AB and senior author of the study says: “The consistent differences among mothers—both in the extent of their behaviors and in how these behaviors changed over the course of infant development—suggest that orangutans may possess individual maternal personalities.”
Regarding the broader implications of their findings, Schuppli added: “We do not yet know whether differences in maternal behaviors bring about differences in aspects of infant development. Due to the many years that orangutans take to develop, we need at least a decade more to accumulate the data needed to investigate the effect of these differences on infant development.”
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2025-05-14
Scientists have found that X-Ray scanning reveals secrets of fossil formation without disturbing the decay of buried carcasses
A new study published in Palaeontology has confirmed that X-ray computed tomography (XCT scanning) can be used to monitor decomposing organisms without altering the natural decay process – a vital step for understanding how fossils form.
A research team from the University of Birmingham entombed dead zebrafish within sediment to test whether repeatedly zapping decaying specimens with X-rays would change how they decompose. Their findings suggest this non-invasive imaging technique allows scientists to watch decay happen in real-time without disturbing ...
2025-05-13
Physical activity in early childhood, especially taking part in organised sports,may ward off several mental health disorders in later childhood and adolescence, suggests research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
But there seem to be clear sex differences in the observed protective effects, depending on the condition, the findings indicate.
The prevalence of mental ill health among children and teens has risen sharply worldwide, with a heightened vulnerability to stress thought to partially explain the increase, note the researchers.
Physical activity ...
2025-05-13
Long working hours may alter the structure of the brain, particularly the areas associated with emotional regulation and executive function, such as working memory and problem solving, suggest the findings of preliminary research, published online in Occupational & Environmental Medicine.
Ultimately, overwork may induce neuroadaptive changes that might affect cognitive and emotional health, say the researchers.
Long working hours have been linked to heightened risks of cardiovascular disease, ...
2025-05-13
University of Bath Press Release
Lower taxes on Heated Tobacco Products are subsidising tobacco industry – new research
Governments missing out tax revenues, hampering health policy
Governments which impose lower taxes on heated tobacco products in the hope of encouraging smokers away from conventional cigarettes are effectively subsidising the tobacco industry, missing out on much-needed tax revenues and hampering their own public health initiatives, new research from the University of Bath shows.
Researchers examined ...
2025-05-13
Being appreciated by colleagues can help employees cope with negative experiences at work, according to a new study involving the University of East Anglia (UEA).
Researchers found that employees experience ‘embitterment’ - an emotional response to perceived workplace injustice - on days when they are assigned more unreasonable tasks than usual.
This negative emotion not only affects their work but also spills over into their personal lives, leading to an increase in rumination, the repetitive dwelling on negative feelings and their causes. ...
2025-05-13
A first-in-human study of an investigational once-daily oral treatment for obesity (SYNT-101) demonstrated positive preliminary data for the safe and effective redirection of nutrient absorption into the lower intestine, the weight loss and metabolic management mechanism behind gastric bypass surgery.
In the study, being presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Malaga, Spain (11-14 May), participants were surveyed for adverse events, tolerability markers, as well as modulation of satiety hormones ...
2025-05-13
New research being presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Malaga, Spain (11-14 May), reveals that 3- to 4- year olds in rural areas are more likely to be living with overweight and abdominal obesity (excess fat around waist), and spend more time on screens than their urban counterparts.
“Our findings reveal distinct patterns of how physical activity, screen time, and sleep relate to overweight and abdominal obesity in urban and rural settings, indicating that one-size-fits-all strategies to tackle ...
2025-05-13
A new analysis being presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Malaga, Spain (11-14 May), finds that around half of the 100 top TikTok videos about food noise reference the use of medications—mainly the popular anti-obesity drugs glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs)—to manage constant and persistent thoughts about food and eating.
“TikTok can be an incredible tool for raising awareness, but it also has a downside,” said lead author Daisuke Hayashi from the Pennsylvania State University, USA.
“The ...
2025-05-13
A survey of adults living with obesity and their physicians across seven countries reveals a high disconnect between their perceptions about the causes of obesity and treatment goals. The findings being presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Malaga, Spain (11-14 May), highlight biased misconceptions about obesity which may impact patients’ access to treatment and support.
“Although the causes of weight gain and obesity are diverse and complex—and often beyond an ...
2025-05-13
New animal research being presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Malaga, Spain (11-14 May), reveals distinct metabolic adjustments to tirzepatide and semaglutide treatment, with tirzepatide temporarily increasing energy expenditure and semaglutide initially reducing energy expenditure. Importantly, the biggest metabolic changes happen directly after treatment and disappear quickly after treatment is stopped.
Anti-obesity drugs like tirzepatide and semaglutide have shown substantial promise in promoting weight loss and improving metabolic ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Not all orangutan mothers raise their infants the same way
Sumatran orangutan mothers differ from one another in how they behave with and take care of their infants
