Breeding performance of captive-born cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) females: Proposed explanations for colony differences.

Successful breeding by captive-born Saguinus oedipus females has now been reported from several colonies, but a marked parity effect (ie, differences in infant survival with the number of litters produced) is usually observed; survival of infants of primiparous females is extremely low but increases with subsequent litters. This parity effect was not observed in the captive-born breeding females in the Oak Ridge Associated Universities colony, with survival of offspring of primiparous females at 58.6%. Two explanations are proposed for this difference: (1) pairing with a male having previous experience in siring and rearing offspring may improve infant survival for primiparous females; and (2) postponing mating to a later age may increase infant survival for primiparous mothers.