Fatal attraction: interest in infants and infant abuse in rhesus macaques.

This study investigated whether infant abuse by female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) is a phenomenon specific to their own offspring or reflects a general tendency to interact negatively with infants. Several aspects of the relationship between maternal behavior, infant handling, and infant harassment were also investigated. Study subjects were 20 group-living rhesus mothers with their infants observed during the first 12 weeks of lactation. The results of this study indicate that abusive mothers are highly attracted to infants in general but that infant abuse is a phenomenon specific to their own offspring. Infant harassment is not an accidental by-product of infant handling or the result of maternal inexperience but it is likely related to reproductive competition among lactating females. Maternal behavior and infant handling may be regulated by similar proximate mechanisms, but probably have different adaptive functions and evolutionary history across the Primate order. Am J Phys Anthropol 110:17-25.