Reactions to infant death by wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: prolonged carrying, non-mother carrying, and partial maternal cannibalism.
Fiche du document
- doi: 10.1007/s10329-020-00851-0
- issn: 0032-8332
Ce document est lié à :
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1007/s10329-020-00851-0
Ce document est lié à :
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/32766938
Ce document est lié à :
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/eissn/1610-7365
Ce document est lié à :
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/urn/urn:nbn:ch:serval-BIB_8C1ECCCB3BEB8
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess , Copying allowed only for non-profit organizations , https://serval.unil.ch/disclaimer
Sujets proches
Cadavers Remains, Human Corpses Human remains DeceasedCiter ce document
J. Botting et al., « Reactions to infant death by wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: prolonged carrying, non-mother carrying, and partial maternal cannibalism. », Serveur académique Lausannois, ID : 10.1007/s10329-020-00851-0
Métriques
Partage / Export
Résumé
Observations of dead infant carrying have been reported for many primate species, and researchers have proposed several hypotheses to explain this behaviour. However, despite being a relatively well-studied species, reports of dead infant carrying in wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) remain scarce. Here we report 14 observations of dead infant carrying by female vervet monkeys in a population at Mawana Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Most of the females carried the dead infant for a day or less, but one female carried her infant for at least 14 days. In one case the maternal sister of a dead infant carried it after the death of their mother. We also report a case of mother-infant cannibalism: a female consumed part of her deceased infant's tail. Other post-mortem care-taking behaviours such as grooming, smelling and licking were also recorded. Of 97 recorded infant deaths in this study population since 2010, 14.4% are known to have elicited dead infant carrying, a proportion similar to that reported for other monkey species. We discuss our observations in relation to various hypotheses about this behaviour, including the post-parturition hormones hypothesis, learning to mother hypothesis, and unawareness of death hypothesis.