Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

INTRODUCTION Offspring are very vulnerable and inexperienced at birth and during the early stages of infancy therefore, maternal behavior is an integral part of an infant’s survival. They promote and assure an infant’s growth and development with out that death of the infant is almost always seen (Pryce et al., 1994). Maternal behavior as defined in Nelson (2000) is “any behavior that contributes directly to the survival of fertilized eggs or offspring that have left the body of the female.” Maternal investment is “the extent to which parents compromise their ability to produce additional offspring in order to assist current offspring.” Maternal behavior and investment can differ both within and among species. It can differ in the time spent providing care as well as the quality of care. The differences are due to the animal’s habitat as well as the developmental status of their young at birth (Kendrick et al., 1997). In a way it is the quality of the care given to the infant that is most important. Quality of care varies with the amount of direct mother-infant contact and the extent to which the mother provides the infant with carriage, warmth, security, stimulation, and protection (Pryce et al., 1994). I