26 



Males use 6-month-old infant in trladic interaction. 



watched the infants develop from helpless babies to 

 semi-independent toddlers. What was more fascina- 

 ting was how troop-mates used these kids as commod- 

 ities in complex monkey social games. 



Research in Morocco in the 1970s by John Deag and 

 David Taub and more recently by Jutta Kuester and 

 Andreas Paul on another captive group in Germany, 

 tells us that Barbary macaque males are unusual in their 

 treatment of infants. Primate males usually interact 

 with infants only in monogamous systems. This makes 

 evolutionary sense because monogamous males invest 

 in infants who carry some of their genetic material. But 

 Barbary macaque males cannot be assured of paternity. 

 During breeding season, females in estrus mate two 

 times an hour on the average. More importantly, 

 however, Barbary females move from partner to part- 

 ner, mating with almost every male in the troop. Be- 

 cause of this "promiscuous" behavior, males can never 

 be sure which infants are his — it could be all or none. 

 Even though true paternity is confused, Barbary males 

 spend much of their social time with particular infants. 



Male-infant interactions come in many forms. For 

 example, males use infants in their own hierarchical 

 tiffs. A lower-ranking male might grab an infant and 



carry it to a higher ranking male, engaging him in a 

 ritual greeting. The forest is often filled with the grunts 

 of males fawning over infants, or the sharp crack of 

 their large canines as their teeth click together during a 

 teeth-chatter greeting. Males use kids as "passports" to 

 gain access to unapproachable partners, essentially to 

 cement alliances with other males. The infant acts as a 

 bumper against any possible protest by the other male. 

 Although very young infants caught in these triadic 

 interactions sometimes scream, and mothers some- 

 times protest, the infants are helpless pawns in the 

 male-male friendship game. 



Males apparently use infants for their own gain. But 

 it's more difficult to explain why mothers let it happen. 



It seems that mothers have little to fear from these 

 would-be uncles; males are usually caring and affec- 

 tionate toward their pint-size friends. In fact, most 

 males have special friendships with particular infants. 

 For example, half of the infants of my females were seen 

 in the care of males. And some males spent time with as 

 many as three different infants. Early in the birth sea- 

 son I saw three males sitting in a circle placidly munch- 

 ing grass. Like human fathers with front-packs, each 

 had a tiny black infant attached to his belly and a pro- 

 tective arm curled around the baby. 



Males are also highly responsive to infants in trou- 

 ble. One of the twins, Harold, was once kidnapped by a 

 juvenile female. He struggled in her arms and finally 

 wrestled free. His mother was near at hand, but in his 

 distress he ran to an adult male friend, Dionysus, who 

 enfolded him and made monkey-soothing noises. 



As infants get older they initiate these interactions, 

 and males seem to be safe partners and friends. One day 

 I was calmly recording the behavior of a mother- infant 

 pair. A high-ranking male, Mercuir, swaggered passed 

 me, an infant riding on his back. As Mercuir passed my 

 subjects, he dipped his shoulder in invitation to the 

 infant I was observing, who promptly hopped aboard 

 for a ride. Mercuir then drifted by another mother- 

 infant pair and collected a third infant. I watched in 

 astonishment as the broad back swayed through the 

 forest with three tiny pink rumps hunkered down on 

 top. 



There are probably long-term consequences of male- 

 infant behavior. Since there is little male emigration, 

 even in the wild, alliances formed between youngsters 

 and adults may last until adulthood. Males may recruit 

 infants as future colleagues by interacting with them as 

 babies; it's as if babies were asked to join a club with a 

 lifetime membership. 



My research also revealed that males were not the 



