Baby monkeys change coats quickly to avoid infanticide
Infants abandon white coats for black when murderous male monkeys threaten
Infants abandon white coats for black when murderous male monkeys threaten
Infant ursine colobus monkeys are born with perfectly white coats, and as they mature, transition into the primarily black fur of adults.
Iulia Badescu, a PhD student in Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Toronto, and her colleagues, noticed that there was a wide variation in timing of this change in colour among infants in different groups. The reason, they now believe, is simple survival.
In monkey groups with a lot of competition between adult males, infants are often killed by the males. They found that infants at risk of being killed by adult male monkeys shift to adult coats more quickly than those not at risk of infanticide. They think this is likely in order to avoid adult male attacks, which are cued by the infant white coat.
Related Links
- Paper in Animal Behaviour
- University of Toronto release
- University of Calgary release