Maternal protectiveness and response to the unfamiliar in vervet monkeys

Vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus) show individual differences in approach-avoidance behavior when faced with an unfamiliar and potentially threatening situation. Prior research from our colony demonstrated that juveniles who had experienced high levels of early maternal protectiveness were more cautious in response to novelty, compared to juveniles who had had less protective mothers. The research reported here was designed to verify this result in a paradigm that experimentally varied maternal protectiveness through the introduction of new breeding adult males. Mothers responded to the presence of new males by increased maternal protectiveness toward infants born in the year following the introductions. Individual differences in response to the unfamiliar were later evaluated by measuring the latency to approach within 1 m of novel food containers placed into the home enclosure of four naturally composed social groups. Infants approached with the same latency and in the same order as their mothers. Juveniles approached sooner than, and independent of, their mother's current behavior, but their latency to approach could be predicted by the experimentally induced variation in maternal protectiveness they had experienced as infants. Immatures who had been born in New Male years, when maternal protectiveness was high, were more cautious and had significantly longer latencies to approach the novel stimulus compared to immatures who had been born in Resident Male years. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.