Observations of dead infant carrying have been reported for many primate species, and researchers have proposed several hypotheses to explain this behaviour. However, despite being a relatively well-studied species, reports of dead infant carrying in wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) remain scarce. Here we report 14 observations of dead infant carrying by female vervet monkeys in a population at Mawana Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Most of the females carried the dead infant for a day or less, but one female carried her infant for at least 14 days. In one case the maternal sister of a dead infant carried it after the death of their mother. We also report a case of mother-infant cannibalism: a female consumed part of her deceased infant’s tail. Other post-mortem care-taking behaviours such as grooming, smelling and licking were also recorded. Of 97 recorded infant deaths in this study population since 2010, 14.4% are known to have elicited dead infant carrying, a proportion similar to that reported for other monkey species. We discuss our observations in relation to various hypotheses about this behaviour, including the post-parturition hormones hypothesis, learning to mother hypothesis, and unawareness of death hypothesis.

中文翻译：

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南非夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省野生黑长尾猴（Chlorocebus pygerythrus）对婴儿死亡的反应：长时间携带、非母体携带和部分母体同类相食


据报道，许多灵长类动物都观察到携带死婴的情况，研究人员提出了几种假设来解释这种行为。然而，尽管这是一个研究相对充分的物种，但野生黑长尾猴（Chlorocebus pygerythrus）携带死婴的报道仍然很少。在此，我们报告了南非夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省马瓦纳野生动物保护区内雌性黑长尾猴携带死婴的 14 项观察结果。大多数雌性携带死去的婴儿一天或更短时间，但其中一只雌性携带婴儿至少 14 天。在一个案例中，一名死婴的母亲死后，她的妹妹带着它。我们还报告了一起母婴同类相食的案例：一名母婴吃掉了她已故婴儿的尾巴的一部分。其他死后护理行为，如梳理、嗅觉和舔舐也被记录下来。自 2010 年以来，在该研究群体中记录的 97 例婴儿死亡中，已知有 14.4% 是由于携带死婴引起的，这一比例与其他猴类报道的比例相似。我们讨论了与这种行为的各种假设相关的观察结果，包括产后激素假说、学习母亲假说和无意识死亡假说。