Interactions between adult male and infant yellow baboons ( Papio c. cynocephalus) in Tanzania

Abstract

Study of interactions between adult male and young infant yellow baboons ( Papio c. cynocephalus) revealed that the males that interacted most with infants were resident adults, who might have fathered the infants, but that newcomer males who could not be fathers never did so. Males carried infants in several circumstances, including triadically during interaction with other males, and did so more when high-ranking and newcomer males were nearby. Their triadic interactions when carrying infants also tended to be against high-rankers and newcomers, so that the infant carrier in such interactions was more often the subordinate of the pair. This study agrees with others that males' access to infants is mediated through relations with the mothers, and their relations with particular infants include both protection and use in agonistic buffering. It is suggested that buffering is a learned behaviour which exploits other animals' wariness of males who are protecting infants.