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Lolita Hugs and Kisses Hershey

1/15/2013

2 Comments

 
Picture
Lolita Kissing Hershey?
     It's either a kiss or a tiny lick.  Lolita has seen and heard Hershey for five days, but this was her first opportunity to touch the tiny infant, and she couldn't have been more gentle.  In the wild Lolita's own mother wouldn't have another baby until Lolita was about three years old, but other females in the troop would, and access to infants is coveted. 
    "Female primates are highly attracted to other females' infants (Maestripieri, 1994).  In a captive study on A. geoffroyi, we found that embraces exchanged between adult females more than doubled in the first six months after infants were born (Schaffner and Aureli, 2005).  Furthermore, in a wild study of A. geoffroyi, there was a dramatic change in the rate at which females received embraces when they had young infants than at other times, and females without infants appeared to give embraces in order to gain access to infants (Slater et al, 2007)."  [Spider Monkeys; Behavior, Ecology and Evolution of the Genus Ateles; ed. Christina J. Campbell]
     Lolita's behavior is endearing, and we hope it bodes well for her future breeding success!

Picture
Lolita is gentle but Hershey looks terrified.
2 Comments
Jen link
1/16/2013 08:06:40 am

How sweet! It sure seems like Lolita approves of the new addition. Congratulations on your growing family. It'll get a lot more interesting when the new puppy comes on the scene.

Reply
Michele
1/16/2013 08:20:25 am

Golden retrievers are pretty easy, Jen :-] And I have 30+ years of experience with them!

Reply



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    Picture
    In the jungle with the monkeys.

    Michele Gawenka 

       Jane Goodall has always been my hero, and working with primates an aspiration.  Africa wasn't in the cards the summer I turned 16, when my parents offered to send me to volunteer,  and there was only one class (in physical anthro-pology) when I wanted to study primatology in college.  
         Decades later my husband and I retired in Costa Rica, and this is our journey with spider (and howler) monkeys. 

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