A Golden Monkey Gives Birth in the Snow… Her Baby Will Need More Than One Mother | 4K Documentary

Golden snub-nosed monkey mothers give birth in the cold forests of Shennongjia, China, in late winter and early spring — when snow still clings to the branches and lichen is almost the only food. Their newborns arrive grey, looking nothing like the golden family around them, and nearby females are often eager to approach, groom, and even nurse the tiny infant.

In a field study that followed these monkeys through five birth seasons, researchers recorded that most infants drank milk from a female who was not their mother — most often a grandmother or an aunt. The few infants who were nursed only by their own mothers were far more likely to die in their first winter. In this species, the milk a baby receives in its first weeks may decide whether it lives to see its first spring.