Maternal Response to Infant Death in Primates

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The third hypothesis, the unawareness of death hypothesis (Hrdy 1999) states proposes that the mothers cannot distinguish between the live and dead body, atleast for the first few days, hence carry them as if they were still alive. In Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys (Li et al. 2012 ), it was recorded that the behaviour of the mothers changed after the death of the infant, with increased grooming and social avoidance, which is atypical of normal behaviour. The mode of carrying these infants also changed after their death. In geladas (Fashing et. al) and snub-nosed monekys(Li et. al. 2012), it was seen the dead body was carried using one hand, in chimpanzees (Biro et. al. 2010),the dead infants were seen being pulled by their limbs; instead of ventrally as they usually are. Apart from this, several other exploratory behaviours by the mothers in all the cases provide proof to refute the hypothesis that the mothers do not know that …show more content…

A lifeless body of an infant falling from a great height has lesser chances of being retrieved by its mother or other members of the troop (Anderson 2011). A study by Nakamichi et. al (1996) reported maternal responses to dead and dying infants in species of strepsirhines, namely the ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta). Seven cases were reported in which the mother had returned to her dead of dying infant, tried to carry it, emitted distinctive vocalizations. It was seen that due to the lack of dexterity, the mothers were unable to carry the infant for a long distance or climb up trees while holding the infant in one hand (except in one case). This led to most of them leaving the body and going after the troop, but they kept returning to it many times to sniff and , sometimes after hours, which showed that ring-tailed lemurs possessed some form of ‘visuospatial memory ability’ which helped them remember the exact site of the infant in their home

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