Macaque Intertroop Siblings

[Ragoo Rao]

Macaques, the Commonest Monkeys we come across in our rural and urban areas of South India. That is the Bonnet Macaques- Macaca radiata.
They live in troops and the troop will have two dominat males and about five to seven females in the harem.
The young born are all half brothers and sisters. These troop siblings paly together learning the tricks of the trade. Sometimes the young are left apart from the older members when they go raiding a human area. They young have to tend for themselves at this time. I have seen the older siblings taking care of the younger one's by occupying them in play and preventing them from straying away.
In this observation I noticed the young members show a lot of affection for their siblings and even fondle them in a human way. Kissing is something I noticed time and over by the young ones. For the first time I could photograph the behavior. I have attached the photograph.