MaRGA Meeting, 2004: Abstracts

8: Clinical / Husbandry / Management

The Influence of Litter Size on Inter Birth Interval
in Captive Callithrix kuhlii at the University of Nebraska
at Omaha's Callitrichid Research Center

H.A. Jensen, J.E. Fite, and J.A. French

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska at Omaha,
Omaha, NE

Many factors can influence the total reproductive success for captive female marmosets. These can include maternal age, condition and experience, litter size, interbirth interval, and the presence of alloparents. Studies have shown that these factors can work in conjunction with each other to either increase or decrease a damÕs total lifetime infant production. With the important role that captive marmosets play in research and conservation today, it is vital that we understand how these factors interact in order to manage breeding colonies that optimize healthy infant production. This study looks at two of these factors, interbirth interval and litter size in female Wied's black tufted-ear marmoset (Callithrix kuhlii). Information on the reproductive management of kuhlii marmosets is less documented than other, more prevalent species such as C. jacchus. The information for this study comes from databases at the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Callitrichid Research Center. Reproductive data was collected on 16 breeding females over 10 years. Litter number and sizes were collected for each female, and interbirth interval was determined for each birth after the first. In all, 69 litters were examined; 1 quintuplet, 1 quadruplet, 17 triplet, 42 twin, and 8 singleton litters. No significant effect of litter size was found on interbirth interval. Infant survival data was also analyzed and shown to have no effect on interbirth interval. These findings confirm the results of studies on other callitrichid primate species (Snowdon, Sousa, Tardif, Ziegler, and others), and may prove useful in the reproductive management of C. kuhlii.