page_title: Paternal care
section_title: Platyrrhines
hierarchical_section_title: Paternal care / Non-human primates / Haplorrhines / Platyrrhines
caption_attribution_description: "cebus capucinus" Dominicalito, Costa Rica.
context_page_description: In biology, paternal care is parental investment provided by a male to his own offspring. It is a complex social behaviour in vertebrates associated with animal mating systems, life history traits, and ecology. Paternal care may be provided in concert with the mother or, more rarely, by the male alone.
  The provision of care, by either males or females, is presumed to increase growth rates, quality, and/or survival of young, and hence ultimately increase the inclusive fitness of parents. In a variety of vertebrate species, both males and females invest heavily in their offspring. Many of these biparental species are socially monogamous, so individuals remain with their mate for at least one breeding season.
  Exclusive paternal care has evolved multiple times in a variety of organisms, including invertebrates, fishes, and amphibians.
context_section_description: Platyrrhini is a sub-order of the order Primate and are commonly referred to as the New World Monkeys. These primates occupy Central and South America, and Mexico. This group is broken into five families, range in body size, and include species such as spider monkeys, capuchins, and howler monkeys.
  Among primate species, the highest levels of male care found in New World monkeys are observed in Owl monkeys (Aotus azarai ) and Titi monkeys (Callicebus caligatus). In both of these species, males and females are monogamous, pair-bonded, and exhibit bi-parental care for their offspring. The social group in both these species consists of female and male parents along with their offspring. Males in these species serve as the primary caregivers and play a major role in infant survival.
  Male Titi monkeys are more involved than the mother in all aspects of male care except nursing, and engage in more social activities such as grooming, food sharing, play, and transportation of the infant. The bond between an infant and its father is established right after birth and maintained into adolescence making the father the infant's predominant attachment figure. Similarly, the male Owl monkey acts as the main caregiver and is crucial to the survival of his offspring. If a female gives birth to twins, the male is still responsible for transporting both the infants. In the absence of a father, infant mortality increases in both these species and it is unlikely that the infant will survive. One study found that the replacement of a male enacting as the role of the father resulted in higher mortality during infancy emphasizing the importance of the social bond created between father and offspring at birth.
  In White‐faced Capuchins (Cebus capucinus) one study found that paternal care exhibited in the form of playful behaviour, proximity to, inspection of, and collecting discarded food items from infants was determined by male rank and dominance status rather than biological relatedness to the infant. Scientists believe that future research on kin recognition needs to be done on capuchins to determine if males choose to bias their care as well as in other non-human primates relying on phenotypic matching to distinguish biological offspring.
caption: White-faced Capuchin
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