Abstract
THE development of behaviour in a young primate is influenced by both the physical and social characteristics of its environment. Paramount among the latter is the mother1, while later other infants are important as play companions2. Previous investigations3,4 of group-living rhesus monkeys suggested that adult females, other than the infant's own mother, might also play an important part, both by themselves showing maternal, social, play, aggressive and other types of behaviour towards the infant and by influencing the nature of the mother-infant relationship. For example, one adolescent female which, with the male's support, frequently interacted with the two infants in the same group, made their mothers extremely restrictive. In consequence, the infants lived confined lives: while seven other group-living infants were recorded more than 2 ft. from their mothers in a mean of 37 per cent of our observation periods when 17–18 weeks old, these two practically never went this far from their mothers up to this age.
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SPENCER-BOOTH, Y., HINDE, R. & BRUCE, M. Social Companions and the Mother-Infant Relationship in Rhesus Monkeys. Nature 208, 301 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1038/208301a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/208301a0
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