How the lives of mothers matter to offspring survival in wild primates

> Within the populations studied here, an example of the death of a white-faced capuchin mother from the Lomas Barbudal population is consistent with our expectations of what grief might look like in a wild primate. This female (Chaos) had lost three infants in less than 3 y, with male-perpetrated infanticide suspected to be the cause in each case. In the weeks following the final infant death, Chaos wandered the forest on her own, rarely appearing in daily censuses of her social group. She eventually died, less than 5 wk after the death of the third infant. At the same time, Chaos faced additional social challenges, including the deaths of her mother and sister and her immigration into a new social group. So, while we cannot state with certainty that grief resulting from the violent killings of her last three infants contributed to Chaos’ death, her case is fully consistent with the maternal grief hypothesis.

This is quite sad, however anthropomorphizing that may be.

This primate descendant is thankful I had a strong family structure of grandparents. Even in their grief they took care of me in my early years and I think I probably turned out ok. I'm more surprised I survived early 80's era powder formula.