Good Intentions Lead to Tragedy
Rhesus males, especially dominant males, normally have very little to do with infants. Henry observed the surrogate mother over the next two days. “It was as if a football player, divorced, got the kid,” Henry jokingly described Spock’s behavior. “Whenever there was a fight, Spock picked up Merlin like a football and ran to the quarreling monkeys.” Acting in a mother’s role, Spock was inherently handicapped. He seemed unaware that his tiny charge required more than tender cuddling. Spock held Merlin down with one foot while he reached for food nearby. Only after he finished eating would his attention return to Merlin, gently grooming the infant to quiet his hungry cries. On the third day Merlin died, probably of starvation. As the people put it that came to worship at the temple, “He died of love. No other male rhesus has ever been seen to adopt an orphan. The scientific literature contains no eyewitness account of a birth in the field. Were babies born at night? In a tree where no potential predators could reach them? On the ground surrounded by other monkeys In June I enlisted the aid of Rakesh Shrestha for a mother-infant study. We were working with Agamemnon’s troop when we noticed Bina, a very pregnant female; suddenly tighten her arms across her body. We watched her body contract. Bina, with her 2-year-old, Sandy, sat on a sunny, open hillside above a village. It was hardly the secluded harborage we had imagined. Ajax, the second ranking male, came up to Bina, causing her to move away. Then he, Sandy, and the rest of the troop moved off. We could see Bina’s contractions becoming more frequent. All at once, Agamemnon reappeared and sat down about a hundred feet above Bina. Gauri, the third male in the pecking order, moved much closer. In the last stages of labor, Bina edged toward a tree. Sarita, a young mother monkey, walked up to Bina, looked, and departed. An hour after the onset of labor, Bina
