In a study of monkey moms and newborns that may shed fresh light on the evolutionary underpinnings of mother-child bonding, National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers have found remarkable similarities between how rhesus macaques interact with their newborns compared to humans with theirs.
Having observed more than a dozen mother-newborn macaque pairs during the first couple months of the infants’ lives, NIH scientists documented behaviors that included all manner of fawning and cooing one would expect to see in a human mom spending quality time with her new baby according to the BBC.
The behaviors cited in the study included long, fixed gazes, exaggerated facial expressions, and a lip-smacking touch that the scientists posit could indicate the evolutionary underpinnings for what we know as a kiss.
Further, precisely as with their young human counterparts, the baby macaques were observed to respond to the behaviors by returning the long gazes and mimicking the physical gestures as well.
The tightly bonded behaviors, however, appear to run their course after two months, at which point the relationship becomes more distant. We humans are particularly slow-maturing creatures. A two week-old monkey has the equivalent capacities of a 1 year-old human baby.
Fuss all over them while you can, macaque moms—they grow up so fast!
Photo courtesy of laszlo-photo, via Flickr