Infant handling – involving affiliative behavior from non-mothers to infants – is a phenomenon that is variably present in Old World monkeys and can be granted by mothers to obtain social services, such as grooming. Here we investigated for the first time whether infant handling could influence grooming exchange in wild geladas. We gathered data on the population of Kundi highland (Ethiopia) in 2019/2020. Via sampling on 15 focal mothers from eight different One-Male Units, we video-recorded 55 grooming sessions between focal mothers and non-focal females (mothers or non-mothers). We also recorded the possible occurrence of infant handling performed by non-focal females. We found that grooming sessions were longer between mother and non-mothers and in the presence than in the absence of infant handling. Hence, our results show that infant handling can influence the grooming exchange between wild gelada females. Because grooming is used to establish and reinforce social bonds in primates, infant handling may act as a ‘social bridge’ in a female bonded society. From an evolutionary perspective, infant handling strategies might represent the stepping stone to more complex forms of infant care, such as allomaternal care and cooperative breeding.

婴儿抚摸——涉及从非母亲到婴儿的从属行为——是旧世界猴子不同程度地存在的一种现象，母亲可以允许它们获得社会服务，例如梳理毛发。在这里，我们首次调查了婴儿处理是否会影响野生鸬鹚的梳理交流。我们收集了 2019/2020 年昆迪高原（埃塞俄比亚）的人口数据。通过对来自 8 个不同单雄性单位的 15 位焦点母亲进行抽样，我们对焦点母亲和非焦点女性（母亲或非母亲）之间的 55 次美容会议进行了视频录制。我们还记录了可​​能发生的由非焦点女性进行的婴儿处理。我们发现，母亲和非母亲之间以及在场的梳理时间比没有婴儿处理的时间要长。因此，我们的结果表明，婴儿处理会影响野生鸬鹚雌性之间的梳理交流。由于梳理用于在灵长类动物中建立和加强社会纽带，因此在女性纽带社会中，婴儿处理可能充当“社会桥梁”。从进化的角度来看，婴儿处理策略可能代表了更复杂的婴儿护理形式的垫脚石，例如异母护理和合作育种。