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Biology
-Generalities

-Social organization

-Territory

-Vocalization

 

 

 

The mother-infant bond is very strong, with the mother protecting the infant from other group members and sympatric species.

Social behavior

It is seen that in the WHG hardly 15% of the total awakening time is spent in social behavior activities. The maximum in the form of grooming is seen to dominate in the mother and infant, following by that between adult male and female and finally between adult pairs and sub-adult and juvenile.

The newly born infant always clings to the mother s belly and feeds on her milk for up to 6 months after which weaning starts.

The playing of infants with other group members signals the weaning phase. However, the mature infant, which spends time feeding and playing with other group members, always shares the night bed with its mother till another baby is born.

Self grooming and self manipulation is very common. These usually take place after heavy feeding bouts and in the roosting trees before sleep overpowers them.

The other intra-group relationships are in the form of play between juveniles and infants, sub-adults and juveniles and sub-adults and adults. This is either mutual contact or mutual non-contact and occasionally avoidance.

The young ones of the group spend the maximum time of their total social behavior in play.

In adults, the playful behavior is more common during the sexual cycle.

Grooming is one of the major activities of social behavior, with each grooming bout lasting from few seconds to 90 minutes, which forms nearly 15% of the total activity period (Alfred and Sati, 1986) and may occur between members of the group. Self grooming is common while during the sexual cycle, the adult male groom the genital portion of the female.

Photos credits: SVAA, all rights reserved