Abandono materno de primatas não humanos

Abstract

The study of behavior and its adaptations shows the answer to the understanding of many questions regarding the evolution of animals. Animal behavior is a vital part of adaptation and is related to the ability to resist environmental variations, feeding strategies, defense against predators, reproductive efficiency, competitive ability and associations between species. The study of animal behavior also helps to understand and formulate hypotheses regarding human behavior and its origin. In this work, we tried to better understand the condition imposed by the absence of maternal behavior in non-human primates, and we verified that, as it happens in humans, from a certain moment on, it is necessary to intervene in favor of the offspring, otherwise its life is at risk. This work was elaborated from the need to treat a case of maternal abandonment in the monkey colony of Instituto Butantan. When a baby monkey was abandoned, we started collecting data in the literature that would give us support and technical basis to deal with the rejection of a little monkey. After the literary survey and our experience, we believe that this work can help the community to better understand the relationship between mother and child and the rejection of offspring in non-human primates. We present here our findings on the absence of maternal behavior, as well as describe all the maneuvers we carry out to deal with abandonment and how Gracinha managed to survive within these situations.