Mamels life animal

As an undergraduate (when everything makes perfect sense and isn't complex and messy- aka fantasy land), I learned that primate mothers will allow juveniles to suckle if they are hurt or sick or stressed. Makes sense! Injured or sick animals may not be able to forage effectively and snuggling with mom is comforting. But wait a second- where are the data? These events are relatively rare and are not a main target of research effort. This means that there is little information about the prevalence and context in which this behavior occurs. Let’s fix that. Human Behavioral Ecologists: Pretty please fill out this survey . Primatologists: Pretty please fill out this survey. xoxo, Katie PS: Although I generally agree with Irwin Bernstein that “the plural of anecdote is not data,” we’re going to ignore that for now.

Milk Talks at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists National Meeting in Portland, Oregon THIS WEEK! Podium Talks : Friday 4/13 Session 24 3:00-3:15 Nursing and maternal energy balance in wild Sanje mangabeys, Cercocebus sanjei, in the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania. G.M. MCCABE, M. EMERY THOMPSON. 3:15-3:30 Long-term consequences of reduced maternal investment in rhesus macaque daughters. K. HINDE, M. WECHSLER. 3:30-3:45 Reproductive energetics in primates: how costly are babies? P.C. LEE, L. ROSETTA, C. GARCIA. 4:15-4:30 Why does time spent gestating and lactating scale differently with body size across primates? D. JANIE, M. COLLARD, A.O. MOOERS. Poster Session: Saturday 4/14 Diet predicts milk composition in primates. G.E. BLOMQUIST, K.J. HINDE, L.A. MILLIGAN. The influence of grandmothers on sustained breastfeeding. K. BOISVERT MEYER, A. GASKINS, M. PATINO, M.E. GLENN, M. RAMSIER. In poor families mothers’ milk is richer for daughters than sons: an example

(Heads up: If the Bard and primates don’t send you into raptures allow me to instead direct you to the inaugural issue of “ SPLASH! Milk Science Update ” from the International Milk Genomics Consortium. Yay Danielle Lemay for spearheading the effort and fun fact- the Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia (current impact factor of 5+) started as a snail mail newsletter by Peggy Neville back in the 80s. So, no pressure Danielle). Yesterday I swung over to the 40 th annual meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America to be a respondent in a session on the The "Famous Ape": Shakespeare and Primatology organized by Holly Dugan and chaired by Linda Woodbridge featuring some truly excellent and engaging talks by Ken, Holly, and Scott (titles below). “The Simian / Human Boundary in Renaissance Culture” Kenneth Gouwens (UConn) “The Monkey of Venice ” Holly Dugan (GWU) “Return to the Poet of the Apes” Scott Maisano (UMass Boston) It turns out that