Motherinfant interactions in western Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla): spatial relationships, communication, and opportunities for social learning

This study investigated motherinfant interactions in lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) with particular focus on the relative role of mothers and infants in creating situations that are potentially conducive to infant social learning. Eleven gorilla motherinfant dyads were focally observed in weekly 1-hr sessions for 12 months. Spatial relationships were affected by age as well as by ambient temperature. Although the youngest infant was encouraged by its mother to walk and climb, mothers showed little or no encouragement in other contexts. In contrast, infants were quite interested in their mothers ’ activities, on some occasions repeated their mother’s behavior, and actively encouraged their mothers to share food, play, or follow them. These findings suggest that gorilla infants are more active than their mothers in creating situations that are potentially conducive to the acquisition of knowledge or skills. Over the last 3 decades, the study of motherinfant relation-ships in primates has concentrated on understanding the proximate determinants and adaptive function of interindividual differences in maternal behavior, with particular emphasis on the regulation of contact and proximity between mother and infant (Fairbanks, 1996). Most of this research has been conducted with Old World monkeys, notably macaques, baboons, and vervet monkeys, be-cause of the ease with which large populations of these primates can be studied for long periods of time. Recently, a growing interest in primate communication and cognition has stimulated attention to the exchange of signals and the transmission of infor-mation between mothers and infants through social learning pro