this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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Animal behavior

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[–] alphapuggle 3 points 1 week ago

But when we do it it's "adopting pets"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

At first, the researchers thought it was a rare, one-time case of adoption. Monkeys have been known to “adopt” abandoned infants of the same or other species. But Joker wasn’t caring for the howlers — he was just carrying them on his back, with no clear benefit to himself, until the infants eventually perished of starvation without access to breast milk.

Wow, that is really distressing. I hope the howler monkeys notice what's going on and better protect their young, as the article hopes at the very end.