Host: Primate Society of Japan
The Valley of the Wild Monkeys (VWM) in Mt. Huangshan, China is home to two semi-free ranging groups of provisioned Tibetan macaques (M. thibetana), named the Yulingkeng A1 and A2 groups. In 2007 at this site, a previous study reported that range restriction accounted for 54.5% of the variance in infant mortality rates, and the corpses showed evidence of conspecific bite wounds. Berman et al. (2007) hypothesized that aggression levels rose in the provisioning area due to range restriction, and this increased aggression led to infant deaths. During the 2014 mating season, we observed 100% (N=4) infant mortality in the Yulingkeng A1 group at VWM but none of the examined (N=3) corpses had any bite wounds. Of the four mothers whose infants died, three carried the infants for 4-7 days. We present here accounts of copulations that occurred during their carrying of dead infants (CDI). Copulations with CDIs occurred the same day of the infant's death for three of the four mothers. One of the mothers gave birth on 21 March 2015, with an estimated timing of conception approximately one month after her infant died. These observations comprise the first accounts of copulations while CDIs for this species.
