{
  "abstract": "In most vertebrates, social play among peers is considered essential for behavioral development. Yet in solitary species bearing single offspring, opportunities for social play are inherently scarce. Whether mothers of such species actively facilitate play opportunities for their offspring, and at what cost, remains unknown. We used 15 y of behavioral and movement data (∼32,600 observation hours) from 31 wild Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) mother-offspring pairs to test whether mothers adjust ranging behavior to increase their offspring's access to play with neighboring peers. Neighboring mothers with similarly aged offspring showed disproportionately high annual overlap in space use, independent of their relatedness or fruit availability. Correspondingly, peer play between neighboring offspring was more frequent when they were closer in age. Mothers also incurred energetic costs; on days their offspring played with peers, mothers traveled farther and spent less time feeding. Travel distances were also elevated on the days before and after play, with mothers orienting movement toward play partners' core areas before play and back toward their own core areas after play. This suggests these encounters are planned and actively pursued over multiple days rather than arising by chance. These findings reveal that orangutan mothers incorporate their infants' social needs into daily ranging decisions, at a cost to their own energy budgets. This points toward an underappreciated form of maternal investment and illustrates how the social requirements of development can be met even near the solitary extreme of animal social organization.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz 78467, Germany.",
    "Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz 78464, Germany.",
    "Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior, University of Konstanz, Konstanz 78464, Germany.",
    "Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland.",
    "Biology Program, Faculty of Biology and Agriculture, Universitas Nasional, Jakarta Selatan 12510, Indonesia.",
    "Development and Evolution of Cognition Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz 78467, Germany.",
    "Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany.",
    "Department of Anthropology, The State University of New Jersey, Rutgers, New Brunswick, NJ 08901.",
    "Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland.",
    "Comparative Socioecology Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz 78467, Germany."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 11,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Odd T Jacobson",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2954-6264"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Alison M Ashbury",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-5181-4667"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Brendan J Barrett",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2725-2385"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Margaret C Crofoot"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Paulina Kukofka",
      "orcid": "0009-0000-6552-4591"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Julia A Kunz",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0381-2982"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Sri Suci Utami Atmoko"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Caroline Schuppli",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6318-2815"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "Erin R Vogel",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6304-5423"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        8,
        9
      ],
      "name": "Carel P van Schaik",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5738-4509"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        9
      ],
      "name": "Maria A van Noordwijk",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9633-0845"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cx0rprgkgm5kq.bib",
  "cited_by": 3,
  "doi": "10.1073/pnas.2621225123",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13684041",
  "id": "cx0rprgkgm5kq",
  "issns": [
    "0027-8424",
    "1091-6490"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42837467",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3207|Primate Behavior and Ecology"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7220735248",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13684041?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13684041",
  "pmid": "42837467",
  "published": "2026-10-06",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cx0rprgkgm5kq.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:03Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42837467",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42837467"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biochemistry",
      "origin": "journal-openalex:1312|Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics",
      "subfield": "molecular-biology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Maternal ranging strategies facilitate offspring social play at energetic cost in the most solitary ape.",
  "title_text": "Maternal ranging strategies facilitate offspring social play at energetic cost in the most solitary ape.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:03Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cx0rprgkgm5kq",
  "venue": "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America",
  "versions": []
}