THE MONKEY THAT BECAME A MIDWIFE

Published: October 6th, 2014 | By Matt Walker

Source: BBC.com

Link: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141006-the-monkey-that-became-a-midwife

Science field: Nature, discoveries 

“In a remarkably rare act, a female langur monkey becomes a midwife, helping another give birth”

 Summary

In the natural world, animals go through the birth alone, not as human society, the phenomenon of `midwifery´ is almost unheard of in nonhuman primates. It was during a research in the Nongguan Hills, in Guangi, China where Meng yao, an assistant professor at Peking University, was researching, with some colleagues, a troop of white-headed langur monkeys when the incident happened. They had whitnessed several births in the same group before. But this time, a five-year-old female went into labour for the first time. When she was attempting to give birth another female intervened, took her over and pulled the infant completely out of the birth canal after 18 seconds. The mother complied, but she did not show any resistance. As soon as it was born, the older monkey held the baby and licked it. Finally, the mother reached out to take it, and the midwife let her do so.

The scientists can only speculate about the behavior given that only once before a monkey has been seen acting as a midwife to another. In contrast, scientists managed to document every step of the latest incident, because it has never been recorded in detail, or filmed, or photographed before.

Glossary

Midwife – to assist in the birth of (a baby).

Snub-nosed – (of the nose) short and turned up at the tip.

Throughout – at every moment or point.

Birth – an act or instance of being born. 

Lick – to pass the tongue over the surface of, as to moisten, taste, or eat.

Alongside – by the side of. 

Afterwards – after an earlier event or time. 

Apes - any of various primates, esp. those of the family Pongidae, in which the tail is very short or absent 

Troop – a group of persons or things.

Review

It is curious how animals act. People think they are insensitive and not smart at all, but they are wrong. Maybe they do not have the ability of thinking but they can love and feel. We can prove it with this incident. Although we can not explain the monkey behavior we know that the 14 years-old female did was helping the young monkey, because it was giving birth for the first time. Animals normally give birth in private and alone, but this time, was different.

Written by Alba Pazos