Abstract
Grooming relations in mother-offspring pairs of rhesus monkeys living in social group A on Cayo Santiago were studied over a 24-month period. The general pattern of grooming relations indicated that (1) up to the age of 3 years, there was no difference in the amount of grooming performed by mothers on their daughters vs. their sons; (2) from age 3–6 years, mothers groomed their daughters more than they groomed their sons; and (3) from the yearling stage through age 5 years, daughters groomed their mothers more than sons groomed their mothers. The maternal-offspring bond, as reflected by measures of grooming frequency, persists into the adult life of the offspring. This study confirms previously reported findings regarding the importance of kinship as a determinant of grooming relations.
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Research grant support from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke, Laboratory of Perinatal Physiology, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Conducted in the Section of Primate Ecology, Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico, and The Rockefeller University, New York.
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Missakian, E.A. Mother-offspring grooming relations in rhesus monkeys. Arch Sex Behav 3, 135–141 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01540997
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01540997