For the first time, recurrent hetero-nursing behavior was observed in old continental monkeys

team led by Chinese researchers found that Sichuan golden monkeys regularly receive breastfeeding from other monkey mothers within three months of birth. This is the first time that recurrent hetero-nursing behavior has been observed in old continental monkeys, which can improve the survival rate of Sichuan golden monkey cubs and provide a new perspective on understanding human evolution.
's study, published in the American journal Science Advances, showed that in a field study conducted in Shennon shelf National Park in Hubei Province, China, about 87 percent of the observed Sichuan golden monkey cubs were raised by non-mothers, mainly among related female monkeys.
show that these female monkeys usually help each other, and nearly 90% of the female monkeys feed the cubs of another mother monkey. This allows the cubs to develop quickly after birth and to be in good condition before the onset of severe winters, thus successfully weathering the winters of low temperatures and food shortages.
from the Central and Southern Forestry University of Science and Technology, Li Ming from the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and researchers from Australia and the United States participated in the study.
they found that 40 of the 46 Sichuan golden monkey cubs in the five birth seasons received milk from one or more non-parent monkeys, a phenomenon seen mainly in the first three months of life. Of the six cubs that failed to receive mother-of-ones, four died in winter, while only six of the 40 cubs that received hetero-nursing died.
'Milk secretion consumes a lot of energy from the mother, so most mammalian mothers are reluctant to feed other female offspring, and in all primates, the regular hetero-nursing behavior is rarely reported in the original monkeys, New World monkeys or human societies, and rarely reported in the Old World monkeys and apes, ' Mr. Zuo told Xinhua.
said that recurrent hetero-nursing behaviors occur between females who are related or cooperative with each other, and that mothers allow other female monkeys to come into contact with their cubs early in their development, which is necessary for the emergence of "baby-mother-hetero-mother" care relationships in the early stages of human evolution. (Source: Xinhua News Agency, Zhou Zhou)