Colobines' Allomothering Behaviour
A female Abyssinian colobus, later named ‘Iroha', was born, in July 2015, entirely white in color, completely different to her mum. Infants' body color gradually changes to be the same color as adults, over a period of 6 to 7 months. Colobinae show ‘allomothering' behaviour - females other than the infant's mothers carry and handle them. This interesting behaviour happened in this case too. Another female, ‘Lemmon', began carrying the newborn ‘Iroha' from the very first day. And sometimes during Iroha's early infancy, she was even carried more often by ‘Lemmon' than by her mum ‘Yellow'. This behaviour became less and less frequent as Iroha grew up. Six months passed and ‘Lemmon' became a mother herself. Now, the roles were reversed. ‘Yellow' became eager to carry Lemmon's infant.