Maternal anxiety and response towards female conspecifics in Tibetan macaques: insight into female cognition on intra-sexual social relationship

we investigates maternal anxiety and behavioral responses in Tibetan macaques (<i>Macaca thibetana</i>) at Mt. Huangshan, China, to elucidate female cognition of intra-sexual social relationships. By analyzing self-directed behaviors (SDBs, proxy of anxiety) and retrieval responses of mothers during mother-infant separation, we examined how kinship, dominance rank, and lactation state of proximate females influenced maternal strategies.