Interesting female baboon behavior

• by jwidness moderator

  I happened to notice a female baboon sucking on her own nipples in ACP0006z1q ACP0006z1r ACP0006z1s. Not an undocumented behavior for female primates, but the first time I've seen it on C&S. I think Dry Lake is going to go down as the site with all the nipple talk ; )

  (Just to science it up a bit, theories for why females might suckle from their own nipples include stimulation of milk flow, pleasurable hormone release, recovery of lost calories, and pain relief from engorged breasts, among other things.)

  Posted January 9, 2016 11:41 PM

• by MimiA scientist, moderator

  Thanks for pointing this out! Do you have references of where its been documented before?

  Posted January 10, 2016 12:00 PM

• by jwidness moderator

  From wild or free ranging studies:

  Majolo, B. and McFarland, R. "Brief communication: Self-suckling in Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) mothers before and after the death of their infant." American journal of physical anthropology 140.2 (2009): 381-383.

  Matsumoto-Oda, A. "Self-suckling behaviour by a wild chimpanzee." Folia Primatologica 68.6 (1997): 342-343.

  Mizuhara H. "Self-nursing?" (in Japanese). Monkey (1974) 18: 28.

  Carpenter, C. "Sexual behavior of free ranging rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)." Journal of Comparative Psychology 33.1 (1942): 113.

  It's also sometimes seen in lists of stereotypical/abnormal behaviors of captive primates, and it's reported as a fairly common abnormal behavior for diary cattle and goats.

  Posted January 10, 2016 10:55 PM

• by MimiA scientist, moderator

  This is definetly the site where i learned the most about nipples. thanks!

  Posted January 11, 2016 9:08 PM