Care-taking behavior by Japanese monkey mothers

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The present study was conducted to describe maternal behaviors toward the infants from the birth to the end of the second year in a free-ranging group and in a large colony group of Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata). In particular, the present study aimed to describe the differences in maternal behaviors according to situations in which the mother spent her time such as resting, feeding and traveling. Irrespective of a free-ranging group or a colony group, mothers tended to spend more time with their offspring when they took a rest than when they fed. On the other hand, the mothers tended to behave aggressively toward their offspring more frequently when they fed than when they rest. Moreover, while mothers traveled in the forest with other group members, they always tended to carry their offspring. These results indicate that Japanese monkey mothers are likely to change their attitude toward their young offspring according to what they do.Maternal behavior of Japanese monkey mothers who take care of normal infants was also compared with not only that of mothers who take care of congenitally malformed infants but also that of macaque mothers and prosimian mothers in order to understand maternal care-taking ability evolutionally. We can say that there is the continuum from prosimians to simians for maternal affectional system.