PARENTAL BEHAVIOR 



1311 



is leaving her body, the licking appearing to 

 be continuous with that which occurred be- 

 fore the emergence of the kid began (Blau- 

 velt, 1955). Tinklepaugh and Hartman 

 ( 1930, 1932 1 provided a detailed description 

 of the behavior of the rhesus monkey during 

 liarturition. The mother monkey gets fetal 

 fluids on her hands by touching her vulva 

 at the beginning of delivery, then vigorously 

 licks the fluid off her hands. The cleaning 

 of the newborn monkey seems to be a con- 

 tinuation of this process. After delivery the 

 mother alternately cleans her own hands 

 and licks the baby's body. 



Self-licking and licking of the emerging 

 fetal membranes and young are often asso- 

 ciated with maternal assistance to the 

 emerging fetus. The domestic rabbit during 

 parturition stands in a bowed, somewhat 

 crouching position with the back strongly 

 arched, the hind limbs flexed ventrally, and 

 the head bent down between the front legs. 

 In this posture the birth canal is so oriented 

 that a fetus during birth is propelled for- 

 wards and downwards between the rabbit's 

 hind-limbs and comes to rest not far from 

 her mouth. When maternal assistance in 

 freeing the newborn young from the fetal 

 membranes is necessary, the mother's mouth 

 is thus automatically in the correct posi- 

 tion (Franklin and Winstone, 1954) . Tinkle- 

 paugh and Hartman (1930) observed that 

 rhesus monkeys actually help pull the 

 young out of the birth canal and then may 

 pull on the cord with the hands, sometimes 

 thus pulling out the placenta. The California 

 sea lion has been observed to turn her head to 

 her vulva and pull with her teeth at the 

 hind flippers which were the only part of 

 the fetus that has emerged. The mother 

 elephant seal may assist during birth by 

 ])ulling at the emerging young with her 

 liind flippers (Slijper, 1956). 



Not all mammals lick the fetal mem- 

 branes or newborn young, or assist the 

 young during birth. Hartman (1920) re- 

 ported that the young opossum receives no 

 assistance from its mother, in fact moving 

 from the uterus to the mother's pouch with- 

 out assistance. In the red kangaroo con- 

 siderable interindividual variability may be 

 seen (Hediger, 1958), but several observers 

 have seen individuals of tiiis species which 

 gave no direct assistance to the emerging 



young (the mother lies on her back during 

 parturition), but which, starting with lick- 

 ing in the neighborhood of the vulva when 

 the placental membranes ruptured, con- 

 tinued to lick the underside of the body in 

 a craniad direction, making a narrow track 

 of fur saturated with saliva, which the 

 young followed, thus reaching the pouch 

 (Dathe, 1934; Grasse, Bourliere, and Viret, 

 1955). 



Not all mammals lick the emerging fetus 

 and assist it to emerge. The camelids (cam- 

 els, llamas, etc.) neither lick the young nor 

 appear to be attracted to the fetal mem- 

 branes or fluids (Filters, 1954). Aquatic 

 mammals such as the pinnipeds (seals, etc.) , 

 although they sometimes assist in birth, do 

 not lick the young. On the other hand, the 

 hippopotamus, which also gives birth in the 

 water, normally does not assist in birth or 

 \m\\ on or bite the umbilical cord, but it may 

 lick the young (Slijper, 1956). 



The fact that in some mammals suckling 

 relationships between mothers and young 

 are adequately established in the absence of 

 any tendency to lick the fetal membranes or 

 the neonate, whereas in other species the 

 licking activity of the mother clearly plays 

 a role in establishing the relationship be- 

 tween mother and young (see below, p. 

 1312), suggests that (a) the processes of 

 establishment of mother-young relation- 

 ships vary widely from species to species, 

 and (b) in those species in which licking 

 does play a role, the possibility of the ex- 

 istence of other factors making a substantial 

 contribution should not be minimized. 



Interaction between mother and young at 

 birth. In many species of mammals, the 

 mother begins to react to the emerging 

 young during parturition, and the mother's 

 behavior toward the young at this stage is, 

 in part, a continuation of her reactions to 

 her own body at the end of pregnancy and 

 the beginning of parturition. The behavior 

 of the young is, of course, also characteristic 

 of the species, both because of differences 

 between the young themselves and because 

 of differences in the situation in which they 

 are placed by the varying behavior of the 

 mother. This leads to different kinds of in- 

 teraction between young and mothers in 

 different species at the earliest stages of 

 parturition and prenatal care. 



