Female/Female Relationships

Females are generally sisters or from the same weening group. Among females, hierarchies were hardly observed (Lord, 1994). Females generally accompany one another and are often seen together (Lord, 1994). They also take turns in caring for the young (Alho, et al., 1987). Some adult females are intolerant of other mother's offspring and in those cases, they generally lunge and attack if another's offspring comes too close (Lord, 1994). Infanticide does occur but a lot less often than in captivity. It has been found that when groups of females live together since weaning, the occurence of infanticide lessens (Siqueira da Cunha-Nogueira, et al., 1999).

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