Alloparental Behavior

Abstract

Alloparental care is defined as care provided to offspring by individuals other than the parents of the recipient. The main types of care studied have been carrying, nursing, and food sharing, but alloparental care may also include indirect kinds of care such as grooming, playing, and territory defense. Alloparental care has its most extreme expression in the cooperative breeding systems present in callitrichid primates. Alloparental care may arise through a mother's tolerance of others caring for her offspring, or if other group members are motivated to provide care for her offspring. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain why individuals who are not genetic parents to offspring sometimes care for them. Benefits to allocare givers may include the acquisition of maternal skills, the possibility of gaining a reproductive position or gaining increased access to potential mates, and improving one's own inclusive fitness.