Monkey Mothers

In the same place where the monkey in this portrait (her blind eye is on your right) clawed my face, I saw a young mother monkey plucking in an agitated way at her infant’s umbilical cord. The infant had an abrasion on his forehead (perhaps from recent birth?) and was trying unsuccessfully to nurse. An older monkey mother with her own baby at nipple, lifted the young mother’s infant firmly away from her and cradled the infant along with her own, refusing to let the young mother have the baby back. Eventually, the baby was calm, the young mother was calm, and the older mother gave the baby back to the young mother. The baby cried at being returned to the deficient mother, but the older monkey stayed close by observing the interaction of young mother and infant. So much for ‘maternal instinct;’ this one, at least, had to learn how to mother, and she had someone to teach her.