to the high mountains of Morocco and Algeria and are 

 the famous "Barbary apes" of the rock of Gihralter. 



The group I studied in La Foret des Singes ("Monkey 

 Forest"), in southwestern France, is a visitor park 

 where humans see and learn about macaques under 

 monkey rules. With 23 acres as a home range, and visi- 

 tors restricted to a small path, these captive monkeys 

 decide how much interaction they want with their hu- 

 man cousins. The familiarity between humans and 

 monkeys also means that animal behaviorists, like my- 

 self, can make close observation of the animals without 

 disturbing their normal behavior. 



I spent a year watching the adult females of this pro- 

 visioned group through the breeding season in the fall 

 of 1986 and the birth season in the spring of 1987. 

 Eleven ot my fourteen focal females gave birth that 

 year, and these females and their infants were my win- 

 dows to understanding the pivotal role that infants play 

 in Barbary macaque community life. 



The birth season began on March 31. I walked 

 through the morning fog toward my focal female of the 

 hour, who was busily eating grass on the open meadow. 

 She was surrounded by about ten other individuals. 

 There was agitation in the air. As I grew closer to the 

 group, I heard a kitten-like squeak on my right and 

 looked down at the first Barbary infant of 1987, with its 

 wrinkled pink face, large floppy ears, and contrasting 

 black fur. He was promptly christened "Philippe" after 

 one ot my co-workers. His squeaks and wails were 



Male with 6-month old intant 



accompanied by a wobbly infant dance, an attempt to 

 reach his mother's nipple. Thea, his mother, eventual- 

 ly moved him into position and he began to suck vigor- 

 ously on her nipple. Next to Thea was her two-year-old 

 juvenile daughter, who stared at the infant as if it had 

 just landed from outer space, and another older daugh- 

 ter, Becky, who guardedly watched the other animals 

 as they fixed on the new infant. 



Twenty-four other infants were born that spring, 

 including a set of dizygotic (fraternal) twins, Harold 

 and Maude, the offspring of the highest ranking 

 female. In all, there were exactly twelve female and 

 twelve male infants. During the next three months I 



Two males use Infant In triadic 

 Interaction 25 



