The baboon monkey is the same as the human

One study showed that monkeys and their newborn babies communicate with each other like humans.

'Everyone knows the actions of parents towards their newborn children. They look at them, laugh, exaggerate the movements, kissing, change the tone of the voice to hold the baby. We found that female monkeys also perform similar behaviors, 'said Pier Francesco Ferrari, an expert in behavioral and neurobiological biology at the University of Parma (Italy).

According to Livescience , many previous studies show that the emotional interaction between mother and child in humanity is very important. Infants are very sensitive to movements, voices and emotional states on the mother's face. For decades, the scientific community has always thought that only humans and chimpanzees are capable of performing those behaviors. The ancestors of chimpanzees are separated from us on the evolutionary path 6 million years ago, while the ancestors of the monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were separated from humans 25 million years ago. Therefore, compared to monkeys, chimpanzees have a closer relationship with humans.

A pair of mother monkeys.Photo: peta.org .

Ferrari and his colleagues closely watched the 14 mother and son pairs in the first two months since the baby monkeys were born. The results showed that the mother monkey looked more at the monkey than the other members in the herd and so did the monkey. The mother often kisses her body and the monkey mimics that behavior. This interaction shows that the inner world of monkeys is quite complicated.

In addition, Ferrari and his colleagues found the mother monkeys actively looking for their eyes. Sometimes they hug their heads and gently pull them towards their faces. In many other cases, when the monkeys were lying on the ground, the mother monkey pressed her face against the monkey and nodded.

The strange thing is that cuddly acts disappear completely after the baby monkey is over a month old.

'At first we found that the phenomenon was relatively confusing, but we should remember that monkey development is much faster than humans. The ability of a two-week-old monkey to move is equivalent to the ability of a child to be 8-12 months old. Therefore, baby monkeys reduce their dependence on their mother much sooner. From the second month onwards, the baby monkey likes to communicate with the same age children, 'Ferrari commented on the article published in the October 8 issue of Current Biology .

The finding shows that, by studying monkeys, the scientific world can gain a lot of knowledge about the evolution of human child care behavior and the development of children.