The Qinling Chuan Golden Monkey (rhinopithecus Roxellana) Infant Carrying Behavior Of Mothers Benefit Analysis

To assess what female Qinling golden monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) gain from allowing others to care for their infants we collected behavioral data on 12 mother-infant dyads at Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve in the Qinling Mountains, China. Our results show that mothers' feeding time significantly increased when infants were cared for by other group members compared to when they were cared for by the mothers themselves. The time mothers spent autogrooming and receiving grooming also increased when they were temporarily relieved of maternal duties, however, mothers didn't groom other individuals more when they were not encumbered by infants. Therefore, mothers benefit from infant handling behavior by increasing their feeding efficiency via gaining more time for feeding; mothers could get more grooming for their hygiene need; mothers could save energy expenditure to bring up their infants. The Wild Qinling golden monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) mothers meet their meet basic survival and maintenance needs because of infant handling.