Maternal ranging strategies facilitate offspring social play at energetic cost in the most solitary ape.
10 affiliations
- 1Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz 78467, Germany.
- 2Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz 78464, Germany.
- 3Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior, University of Konstanz, Konstanz 78464, Germany.
- 4Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland.
- 5Biology Program, Faculty of Biology and Agriculture, Universitas Nasional, Jakarta Selatan 12510, Indonesia.
- 6Development and Evolution of Cognition Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz 78467, Germany.
- 7Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany.
- 8Department of Anthropology, The State University of New Jersey, Rutgers, New Brunswick, NJ 08901.
- 9Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich 8057, Switzerland.
- 10Comparative Socioecology Group, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz 78467, Germany.
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.
Related
- Maternal microbiome promotes offspring ovarian reserve via bile acid metabolism
- The role of maternal gut microbiota in prenatal depression and offspring neurodevelopment.
- Effects of Prepartum Flaxseed and Hermetia illucens Oil Supplementation on Fatty Acid Profiles Across the Maternal–Placental–Offspring Axis in Prolific Ewes
- Neuroepigenetic programming by the maternal environment: part A—epigenome-wide DNA methylation profile in the offspring’s olfactory bulb following preconceptional weight loss in mice
- Neuroepigenetic programming by the maternal environment. Part B: independent contribution of methylation and hydroxymethylation in the offspring's olfactory bulb following preconceptional weight loss in mice
BibTeX
@article{jacobson2026maternal,
title = {{Maternal ranging strategies facilitate offspring social play at energetic cost in the most solitary ape.}},
author = {Odd T Jacobson and Alison M Ashbury and Brendan J Barrett and Margaret C Crofoot and Paulina Kukofka and Julia A Kunz and Sri Suci Utami Atmoko and Caroline Schuppli and Erin R Vogel and Carel P van Schaik and Maria A van Noordwijk},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2621225123},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42837467},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Maternal ranging strategies facilitate offspring social play at energetic cost in the most solitary ape.
AU - Odd T Jacobson
AU - Alison M Ashbury
AU - Brendan J Barrett
AU - Margaret C Crofoot
AU - Paulina Kukofka
AU - Julia A Kunz
AU - Sri Suci Utami Atmoko
AU - Caroline Schuppli
AU - Erin R Vogel
AU - Carel P van Schaik
AU - Maria A van Noordwijk
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/06
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2621225123
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42837467
AB - 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.
SN - 0027-8424
SN - 1091-6490
ER -