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Show ljg.,.:Hiih.ii:.a.a,J..,. 1,,,.,. rtrtfffWirf-hitihi,f"WiiililMlll.i i JE&f. ceremony. They may sleep in physical contact and they periodically groom each other by nibbling and licking. The male invests heavily in the survival of his offspring and helps the female raise the young by bringing food. The short, squat bush dog shows behavior similar to the fox. Kleiman's colleagues have even observed male bush dogs assisting in the birth of young. "These observations will help . in our breeding programs," she says, "but I also want to know why these animals express monogamy in different ways and take a different amount of interest in raising their young. "The differences may be influenced by many things-the things-the natural habitat of the animal and the need to stick together either for food or to keep away predators. In some cases, this also means that the male takes a heavy interest in the survival of the offspring, but not always." Kleiman tries not to draw too many analogies between animal and human behavior, although she admits that the patterns seen in animals are also seen in humans. "Take the American suburban middle-class family," she says. "Some women rear their children essentially alone. The male protects the home and indirectly in-directly provides food through wages received from a job. But the male frequently has little interaction with the young and weak emotional bonds with both wife and children. "We see this pattern in animals too, but the major difference is that monogamy in humans is culturally imposed and is not usually related to survival. "If we can come up with some factors from our animal studies that seem to promote a particular form of mating system, we may eventually learn something about evolution of these systems and, perhaps, about ourselves.." Whatever the message may be for humans, the message for zoos is clear. Understanding the behavior and social customs of animals is a must for successful suc-cessful breeding programs. In many cases, these programs are the last chance for endangered animals who, like the golden marmoset, have no other hope for survival. This family portrait of mother and young golden lion marmosets, rare and endangered South American monkeys, was taken at the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Animal behavior studies there show that marmosets make good mothers if they have good role models as youngsters. Animal behavior studies are necessary for successful captive breeding programs, which in many cases are the last chance for the survival sur-vival of endangered animals. Behavior Studies Used to Save Endangered Species Tommie and Susie (not "Behavioral and social their real names) were the studies of animals are ab- nroducts of broken homes, solutelv neoessarv fnr Taken at the tender age of a few months from their respective families, the eventually found each other and had children. But Tommie and Susie were lousy parents-ignoring, mutilating and even killing their babies. Susie became known as "The Killer." Such bizarre behavior might have become a social worker's nightmare except for the fact that Tommie and Susie were golden lion marmosets, a rare and endangered South American monkey, and they were living in a zoo. Instead, their case became the perplexing problem of Dr. Devra Kleiman, an expert in animal reproduction and behavior at the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Why, Kleiman asked herself, did these animals, taken from their parents and reared outside their families, breed prolifically but make such miserable parents? The answer had more than academic interest: in-terest: The only way to save the golden marmosets from extinction was to learn how to breed them successfully in captivity and raise healthy offspring. Only 100 of them remain in the wild. The answer was soon provided by detailed behavioral studies of the animal in captivity and the wild. Golden marmosets live in an extended family, Kleiman and others . discovered. The young marmosets like Susie must be left with their parents until a second group of young are born and raised. By having role models and by babysitting with the new youngsters from time to time, the younger marmosets mar-mosets learned how to be good parents. Armed with this information, in-formation, the National Zoo began leaving younger marmosets with their parents until an appropriate age. The result? The number of golden marmosets in captivity has gown from 69 in 1972 to over 100 worldwide. world-wide. Most of these new additions were born at the National Zoo. The work on golden marmosets also taught researchers another invaluable in-valuable lesson. - j - - - breeding and raising rare and endangered animals successfully in captivity." Kleiman says. "Of course, we must also know an animal's diet and nutritional requirements, what diseases it gets and what kind of environment it needs. But if we don't know the social and breeding customs, the chances of success are nil." Behavioral studies of animals require painstaking, pain-staking, sometimes boring and always lengthy observations ob-servations of their eating habits and reproductive and social activities. Ideally, these studies should take place in the animal's naturl habitat, but this is not always possible. More often, researchers combine observations ob-servations of the animals in their natural habitats with studies in captivity. In one such project on social behavior, Kleiman is studying three relatively rare South American animals-the maned wolf, the crab eating fox and the bush dog. These animals belong to the same family as the common houshold dog. Thoy sHare another key feature: Like humans, all three species are monogamous, that is, one male mates with one female at a time. "Monogamy is unusual in mammals," Kleiman says. "Only three percent of all the world's mammals are monogamous. Humans and these animals are among this tiny minority." What fascinates her are both the similarities and differences in how the animals express their monogamous behavior. The maned wolf, for example, lives mainly in savanna environments feeding on small rodents and vegetation. The males and females appeare to be solitary hunters, coming together only during the mating season. The males may not stick around long enough to help raise the young. On the other hand, the male and female crab eating fox travel in pairs in the wild and jointly hold a territory against predators and intruders. in-truders. The male. and. female often hunt close together and reunite after a separation with an elaborate |