Artemis introduces himself to the newest group member
It is my pleasure to introduce to everyone the newest member of the Green Group. On Wednesday Anna was a new mother and the birth season is officially underway!
Wrapped up in a blanket of Oz's fur
This is the first birth in our three groups of 2011 and Anna is the dominant female of the Green Group and now her and her new baby are receiving an great deal of attention.
Anna looking on as Lewis show's Ben what all the fuss is about
Anna has a surviving infant from last year and also a three year old juvenile so she has good form for raising infants and we hope for a bright future for this little girl.
Making a break for Mum
The now year old infant of the previous year is looking a little miffed, confused and jealous. I guess there world has been turned upside down literally over night, as Barbary macaque births occur through the night in general. The males all try to gain access to the infants and carry them around. They use the infants as social tools, trying to build their social relationships with the other males ard reduce their chance of an aggressive reception when they approach, hoping their counterpart would not aggress them whilst they are holding the baby. You can see a triadic male sandwich between Artemis and Lewis with the new baby by clicking on the link below (sorry its slowed down so there is no sound):
When the new infants are born it sparks a flurry of activity in the group and also with us researchers. Within my groups i don’t like to give names to the infants until they reach one year old. This is mainly because the infant mortality rate is relatively high and we do not want to become overly attached to the new born’s. Last year for example of the two groups we had 13 infants born and have 8 still with us today. This means we are frantically wracking our brains for 8 new names for our boys and girls. I would like to therefore open up the blog to our avid readers and ask for suggestions for one member of the Green group and one of the Scarlet group.
Hollie's Infant
This will be one female infant of the Scarlet group which is the daughter of Hollie, the second ranked female. She is a boisterous little girl who is not afraid to use her mother’s dominant position to help her out. She will often displace the other infants and sometimes older juveniles knowing Mum will be around as back up. And the others are all too aware of Hollies wrath if they rub her daughter up the wrong way!
From the Green group we have Rebecca’s little boy. He is a curious little guy who like to check from the bushes and low branches we are collecting data properly. You will often find him up above your head quizzically staring down or even sometimes in the denser foliage meet him eye to eye a half metre or so away. He spends a lot of his day playing with Kerry’s infant in the Green group and i think the two of them are becoming good friends.
Rebecca's curious infant
Any name suggestions for IH (Hollie’s infant) and IR (Rebecca’s infant) are most welcome, either via the comment section or facebook if we are acquainted as such.
I look forward to the suggestions. There will be a one week deadline for entries so the last day will be Sunday 3rd of April and the team and I will then select the best names, and the winning entries will be prestigiously named right here on the blog.
Chris
Woah! Wish I could have stayed to see them.
Halo is a great name, but what about an Arabic name for IR?
I like Rafiq, meaning “friend” (remember Rafiki from Lion King? – that’s the Swahili version of it).
Ah hoi hoi!
My suggestions for naming the infants are:
-Choccy
-Giggsy
and finally Fubby!
My little boy (5) thinks they should be called Alice and Abigail……
Nice post, Chris!!
My suggestions for naming the infants are:
– Halo for Hollie’s infant
– Romeo for Rebecca’s infant (as Sofia suggested)