I was initially drawn to this project due to previous experience working with an orangutan mother and her infant at the Saint Louis Zoo. I found myself fascinated by their relationship, their personalities, and watching as the infant learned how to navigate their world from her mother. This curiosity was further stoked when a chimpanzee gave birth to her first infant last fall. There, I was mostly interested in first time motherhood and how an adult group of chimpanzees would adapt to having a younger, new member of their troop. When trying to decide upon a Capstone topic, it all fell together when learning about the allomothering taking place amongst Black and White Colobus monkeys. In this paper, I look at the overarching concept of the role of mother-infant bonds in primates, both captive and wild, and how zoo staff hope to mimic these relationships. I found that across the three different species, the presence of a new infant and the level of human intervention varies greatly due to each species natural history. Zoo staff is intentional with introductions, assistance, and daily care to ensure as natural a setting as possible across all three species. I then compare my findings with instances of hand-rearing infants and other complications. I found this research to be valuable in that it applies an added layer of understanding from wild field sites onto primate conservation and, in turn, betters the lives of primates in captivity.

Dr. MacKinnon was the Anthropology Faculty Mentor for this project. She helped the student develop a thesis, talk ideas, and provided comments to better the project. Her guidance was integral towards completing a meaningful final product. Thank you!

Helen Boostrom, Zoological Manager at the Saint Louis Zoo, was the informant for the interview aspect of the paper. She worked with the Jungle of the Apes/Primate House zookeeper teams to answer all interview questions with great detail. Without her contribution, this final project would have taken a very different path. Thank you!