On January 1, 1992, the female was observed with a female infant, which was estimated to be approximately 6 weeks old (bomin November 1991). The male and femaleremained in close proximity even after theinfant was bom.The infant left its nest about 15 min beforeits mother, which remained within the samenest. During this time, the infant stayed closeto the nest, looking about. After the motherhad left the nest, and while she was auto-grooming, the infant imitated her gestures.When the mother had finished auto-grooming, she licked the infant’s face.During the first 2 months of observationson the infant, she remained at the sleepingsite, eating coconut meat with her third finger.Her mother opened the nuts for her. Themother spent most of her time eating andtravelling through the coconut grove, but never further than a 50-m radius from the nest. Atthe least suspicious sound, the infant lookedwarily about and immediately hid

During grooming while suspended from asupport, the mother and infant played andcaught one another with their forelimbs.Nursing was observed twice during their activities (beginning and end of March). Theinfant nursed for between 5 s and 3 min whileher mother remained immobile in a standingposition. Nursing took place 1-2 h after leaving the nest. When returning to the nest, themother entered the nest first, followed by theinfant.

primates have one pair of nipples in their pectoral region(Fig. 2c) and usually give birth to one or two relativelymature offspring compared to altricial animal species. Thelocations of the nipples of old world monkeys and apes aresimilar to human, but those of the new world monkeys havetheir single pair of nipples located closer to the axilla, whichenables nursing when the babies are riding on their backs [18]

ocial Behavio

the time spent nursing decreased at the average rate of 9.4 min perweek until the infants were about 6 months old.

Intriguingly, some of the primitive primate specieshave multiple sets of nipples that are located both in theinguinal region and pectoral regions. For example, some ofthe prosimians (lemurs, lorises, and tarsiers) have two pair ofnipples located in both regions. Surprisingly the aye-aye has asingle pair of nipples in the inguinal region [18].

The mammary glands in the inguinalregion are generally larger (for example, the #4 and 5 mam-mary gland pairs in mice) (Fig. 2a). The precocial type specieshave nipples developed in the inguinal region (Fig. 2b). Thelimited number of offspring produced by these animals meansthere is not a need for a great number of nipples whichessentially serve as points of milk outlet. The location wherenipples are developed in the precocial type occurs in theregion where the mammary gland appears to have the capacityto develop to a maximum size. This extensive glandular tissuein ungulates provides the rather large and active offspring ofthese animals with abundant milk, and this capacity has beenfurther expanded in domesticated species.

Arboreal type animals in general don’t make elaboratenests and offspring are usually carried by the mothers untilthey obtain the locomotive ability to follow the troop orparents. Primate species that do not live in trees such asbaboons and humans, still possess many morphological andbehavioral characteristics common to other primate species.On the other hand, altricial-types that have adapted to arbo-real niches, such as squirrels, retain the distribution ofmammary glands found in these species. Most of the

1). In contrast, the durationof nursing bouts did not differ significantly as the infant aged (/7i6,i024 =1.513, p = 0.088; Figures 1 and

A successful nursing (allonursing) bout was defined as an event in whichthe infant placed its mouth on its mother's (allonurse's) nipple and suckledfor more than 10 s. The duration of the suckling bout was recorded fromonset until the infant removed its mouth from the nipple (Baldovino & DiBitetti, 2008). Suckling behaviour is also accompanied by stimulation ofthe other nipple using a hand, and switching rapidly between nipples afterstimulatio

evidence for allomaternal nursing is absent

age of 5 years

From the observa-tions and inspection of the behavior records, it followed that infants often brieflyreleased the nipple and resumed nursing without doing anything else in particular.It also happened that the infant lost the nipple because of movements of themother; it sometimes vocalized in response. As soon as the mother moved theinfant near the nipple or took a position that allowed access to it, the infantresumed nursing.

On-nipple without sucking was both short (mean = 9 sec) and infrequent (only13% of all on-nipple bouts). Sucking milk, therefore, was the rule if the infant wason the nipple. Nipple bouts with sucking will be termed “nursing.” As these wereapproximately exponentially distributed, nursing in chimpanzees had not thecharacter of a meal with a rather fixed duration

The behavior of chimpanzee mother-infant pairs ( n = 9) was observed whilethey remained alone in a familiar, small cage. At other times, the animals weretogether with a few other mother-infant pairs in a large cage.

The time intervals between nursing bouts were also highly variable in dura-tion. Brief intervals were common; long pauses were scarce and lasted about 90rnin maximally (Van Lawick-Goodall, 1967; Plooij, 1984).

he mean nursing bout length was between 2and 3 rnin during the first week or month and about 2 rnin at later ages (VanLawick-Goodall, 1967; Plooij, 1984).

Orangutans have the most prolonged nursing period of any mammal, with the cessation ofsuckling (weaning) estimated to occur at 6 to 8 years of age in the wild

Nursing behavior is notoriously difficult to study in arboreal primates, particularly when offspring suckle in-conspicuously in nests

As short contact does not allow for milk transfer (4, 8), suckling boutslasting less than 30 s were excluded from data analysis

A nursingbout was recorded when an infant contacted a female’s nipple andbegan suckling

Over the course of five birth seasons, 87% (40 of 46) of infants wereobserved to suckle from one or more females other than their mothers,with 48% (22 of 46) suckling from at least two additional females.

Females continue to nurse infants for a period of 12 to 14 monthspostpartum (28)

Here wedescribe an alternative measure of sucklingintensity (hereafter referred to as the suck-ling index) that is as easily computed as thebout rate but is based on the intervalsbetween nursing bouts.

e.g., Nicolson,1982; Lee, 1987; Stewart, 1988

as defined by the latencyto attach to a nipple

some pups8 d old and younger will suck for at least 2 h without leav-ing the nipples of darns anaesthetised with Urethane

on average at day 8.7 with 31.5 sucklings per day

The offspring were weaned at an age of 5 weeks bythe removal of the mother.

The average pre-massage time was about 150-170 s during the first 2 daysand then decreased to a fairly stable level of 90-110 s, maintained for the restof the period (Fig. 3 ). The average final massage time showed a large varia-tion between sows and between days, but tended to be somewhat longer in themiddle part of the period than at the beginning or the end (Fig. 3 ).

In a study where the behaviour of sows and piglets was re-corded at Weeks 1, 4, 10 and 15 postpartum, it was shown that the frequencyof sucklings gradually changed from about 1.3 per hour down to almost 0 at15 weeks

The most pronounced frequency change happened between 1 and4 weeks postpartum, and in the same time interval the proportion of sucklingsinitiated by the sow decreased significantly from about 60 to 45%, and theproportion of sucklings terminated by the sow increased from about 50 toalmost 100% (Jensen, 1988b).

The behaviour recordings were carried out during June-August 1987. Sevenmultiparous (range of parities: 2 - 6 ) and three primiparous sows with theirlitters ( m e a n litter size on Day 1 postpartum: 7.6; range 4-12

Due to the orangutan's arboreal habits, it has proven to be virtually impossible to obtain a good estimate of the amount of time infants drink their mother's milk. Mothers may nurse their offspring inconspicuously while feeding and resting. When mothers rest on a nest they may also frequently nurse, but this remains hidden to any terrestrial observer. Thus, the collection of quantitative data on frequency and duration of nursing to document changes over time is not feasible under natural conditions.

Aye-aye courtship behavior

Primate Courtship Behavior

Small nocturnal mammal courtship behavior

General background information on courtship behavio

Knowing of my interest in con-temporary Paganism he introduced me to one of the leaders of the group whoseemed amused by my bewilderment at the possibility of there being a groupof solitary practitioners. What struck me as an oxymoron was for her and mystudent a matter of my misunderstanding of what it means to be a solitary. Ac-cording to them their group, which gathered together to celebrate holidays andshare their spiritual knowledge, was an assembly of distinct individuals all ofwhom were practicing their own form of contemporary Paganism. Althoughtwo people were acknowledged as the coordinators of the group, they did notconsider themselves religious leaders. Furthermore they were not a teaching co-ven. Each person was responsible for her or his own spiritual practice and wasexpected to come with one in place or learn about it on her and his own. No onehad official authority over dogma, belief, or ritual practice, nor could anyone de-cide who was to be initiated into a spiritual path or who could move up ranks ofnoted expertise that exist in Wicca and among Druids and some other spiritualpaths

For Witches and Wiccans the shared past is one in which theirspiritual forbearers were the magical people who were healers, midwives, andmagical workers among the peasantry. They were respected and loved.