Identify an adult and one infant. Young primates are usually described either as
"infants" or "juveniles". These terms are no better defined when applied to
primates in general than when applied to humans. Roughly speaking, though, an
infant is a young animal that is very dependent on one or both parents for
food, protection and warmth--almost certainly still suckling, and in most
species of primates being carried, or riding on, a parent for much of the time.
You can identify an infant by the lack of white ear tufts. Observe the
mother-infant pair for 10 minutes. You will need a sheet of paper and a pen to
record the following categories.
Once you have finished observing and recording, look back over your findings and try to identify similarities in the relationship between parent and infant marmosets and between human parents and infants.
Text and design by Lissa Pabst.
Development of this web page was supported by a grant from the Wisconsin Advanced Telecommunications Foundation, the University of Wisconsin (Extension & Systems), and grants number RR00167 and number RR15311, National Primate Centers Program, National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health.
URL: http://www.primate.wisc.edu/pin/marmoset/exercise2.html
Page last modified:
May 22, 2002
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