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Baboon Mothers and Infants

When it was originally released in 1980, Jeanne Altmann’s book transformed the study of maternal primate relationships by focusing on motherhood and infancy within a complex ecological and sociological context. Available again with a new foreword by the author, Baboon Mothers and Infants is a classic book that has been, in its own right, a mother to a generation of influential research and will no doubt provide further inspiration.

272 pages | 35 halftones, 31 line drawings, 19 tables | 6 x 9 | © 2001

Biological Sciences: Behavioral Biology, Ecology

Reviews

“When this book was first published, it was a landmark in studies of free-ranging primates as well as the first synthetic text on the ecology and behaviour of mothers and infants. It remains as important today as it was 20 years ago, and it is timely to bring it to the attention of a new generation of behavioural ecologists.”

P.C. Lee | Folia Primatologica

“This book, which looks at motherhood and infancy in baboons, is a classic for those interested in primate infant development, maternal behaviour, mother-infant relationships and social systems.”

Ethology

“What emerges from the text, but even more forcefully from the case histories, is a feeling for the richness and complexities . . . of the daily lives of baboon mothers and infants. One finishes this book wanting to know how the individual baboons’ stories ended and Altmann provides an update on the fates of some of her subjects. Since this book’s publication other researchers have conducted field studies of primate mothers and infants, but none have been more comprehensive. . . . Altmann’s observations here remain fresh and informative today because of the remarkable full picture she provides of the lives of these mother and infant baboons.”

Janice Chism | Quarterly Review of Biology

“When it was originally released in 1980, Jeanne Altmann’s book transformed the study of maternal primate relationships by focusing on motherhood and infancy within a complex ecological and sociological context. Available again with a new foreword by the author, this book is a classic one that has been, in its own right, a mother to a generation of influential research and will no doubt provide further inspiration.”

Ethology, Ecology | and Evolution

Table of Contents

FOREWORD

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF AMBOSELI BABOON RESEARCH

1. INTRODUCTION

2. BABOONS AND THEIR HABITAT

3. METHODS

4. DEMOGRAPHY: BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND

INTERBIRTH INTERVALS

5. ECOLOGY AND MATERNAL TIME BUDGETS

6. SOCIAL MILIEU

7. MATERNAL CARE IN THE POSTNATAL PERIOD

8. INFANT DEVELOPMENT AND MOTHER-INFANT

SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS

9. WEANING AND INFANT INDEPENDENCE

10. CONCLUSIONS AND SPECULATIONS

APPENDIX 1. Maternal Geneologies in Alto’s Group

APPENDIX 2. Selective Case History Descriptions of All

Mother-Infant Dyads with Emphasis on

Adult Male and Kin Associations

APPENDIX 3. Selective Case History Descriptions of All

Adult Males

APPENDIX 4. Behaviors Recorded in This Study and

Analyzed in the Text

APPENDIX 5. Residuals from Linear Regression of Daily

Time Infants Spent in Contact with

Their Mothers at Each Age

REFERENCES

INDEX

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