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!
"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!
 Lolita is gentle but Hershey looks terrified. | |
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