Pier Ferrari and his colleagues at the University of Parma in Italy just published an article titled Neonatal Imitation in Rhesus Macaques in PLOS–Biology.
The authors demonstrated imitation of actions such as lip smacking and tongue protrusion on the infant monkeys’ first day of life. Imitation of this type is believed to provide the basis for social affiliation, mother-child bonding, and communication in humans and apes, but had not previously been observed in monkeys.
Not only are these findings interesting and important, but the pictures are too cute to pass up. Of course, what they don’t tell you is that adult rhesus, while fascinating, have a tendency to try to kill you. I had a black and blue knee for most of my graduate school days, courtesy of a big male rhesus who was hard to transfer from his home cage. I had to brace the door with my knee to keep him from escaping. Anyway, enough nostalgia…here are the baby monkeys as promised. Move over, TomKat…
