How long monkeys nurse

Four of them died during the winter before weaning , whereas only six of the 40 infants who were allonursed died and this includes two cases of male infanticide that occurred when a new male took over a group.

It may also provide a more diverse set of immune compounds to infants, improving their resistance to various diseases and parasites. The behavior may benefit mothers, too. By taking some of the energetic burden off of mothers and spreading it around among related females, mothers may be able to reinvest energy and resources into future offspring. Xiang says that it is unlikely that any single set of conditions can explain why allonursing has evolved in disparate species.

It seems that for some mammals, it may take a village to raise the young. Sharing nursing duties with your relatives just makes sense for golden snub-nosed monkeys. All rights reserved. Follow Mary Bates on Twitter and Facebook. Share Tweet Email. Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Four of the six infants who did not receive nursing from another female died during winter, while only six of the 40 infants who were fed by "wet nurses" died, according to the study.

The study's co-author Xiang Zuofu with China's Central South University of Forestry and Technology told Xinhua that, since breastfeeding is energy-consuming, a majority of animal mothers are unwilling to do so and among primates, only prosimians and New World monkeys nurse infants that are not their children.

The cost of helping others are particularly high for monkeys such as the golden snub-nosed monkey that live in high-elevation temperate forests with extremely cold, five-month-long winters but those mutually beneficial behavior is believed to enhance infant survival and reduce postnatal reproductive costs incurred by the infant's mother, according to Xiang.

The study also showed that the allomaternal nursing activities occurred in a tolerant kin-based support network where those breast-feeding mothers are relatives.

As long as there is an excessive number of monkeys and insufficient cage space, there is no ethically legitimate reason for attempting to enhance the animals' reproductive output, especially when such measures are not proven to be effective but cause unequivocal psychological distress. It is a vicious self-reinforcing circle: Stressed animals are prone to yield stressed scientific data, which in turn necessitates a larger number of subjects needed to obtain statistically significant results.

It is conceivable that maternal-infant separation for the purpose of artificial weaning flaws primate husbandry to the exent of increasing - rather than decreasing - the total number of monkeys needed for research.

Thus, artificial weaning is not only an avoidable source of distress but it may also be an economically unsound management practice. Altmann, J. Baboon Mothers and Infants. Cambridge: Harward University Press. Life history of yellow baboons: Physical development, reproductive paramters, and infant mortality.

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Laboratory Animals, 29, Capitanio, J. Social experience and immune system measures in laboratory-housed macaques: Implications for management and research.

ILAR Journal, 39 1 , Cary, M. The effect of mother-infant separation in captive baboons on time intervals to first postpartum estrus, confirmed pregnancy and subsequent parturition. Goo, G. Effects of weaning age on maternal reproduction and offspring health in rhesus monkeys Macaca mulatta. Laboratory Animal Science, 34, Goosen, C. Researchers used large groups of rhesus macaques living in an outdoor enclosure at the California National Primate Research Center at UC Davis to study how this natural variation in breast milk quality and quantity sends a signal to infants about their environment.

The researchers collected milk at two different times from 59 mothers: once when their infants were one month old and again when the infants were three and half months old.

They recorded the quantity of milk produced by each mother and analyzed the energy value of each animal's milk sugars, proteins and fat.