Tarini Gannamaneni
Pronouns: She/her
Research Mentor(s): Jacinta Beehner, Associate professor
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Anthropology and Psychology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Session: Session 3 (1pm-1:50pm)
Breakout Room: Room 10
Presenter: 6
Abstract
Weaning, the gradual process of changing an infant’s diet from breastmilk to other sources of nutrition, is an important process in mammals. Specifically, the age at weaning can affect early development as it may reflect maternal investment. However, in wild animals it can be difficult to determine an exact age at weaning. We use four different measures to determine the age at weaning in a wild species of monkeys, geladas (Theropithecus gelada), and we examine if these measures correlate with each other. We will also test for effects of certain variables, such as maternal parity and infant sex. The four measures are: the last date of nipple contact (collected via adlib data), the change in frequency of nipple contact (determined via focal observations), the date of the mother’s return to cycling (collected via adlib data), and the date of the mother’s next conception (determined by the next infant’s date of birth). So far, our data indicates that male infants remain in nipple contact longer than female infants. This research will have implications for infant growth and development and can even provide insights into human nursing.
Authors: Tarini Gannamaneni, Sofia Carrera, Amy Lu, Jacinta Beehner
Research Method: Laboratory Research
