Baby Mania

September is the start of the birth season at Beza, and most of the
groups that I'm watching have at least one, if not more (up to 6)
babies in them so far. Baby ring-tailed lemurs are not all that cute.
They look more like little aliens with tiny black and white rat-tails.
A few of them are pretty cute though, and they're especially cute as
they turn somersaults on top of their moms.

On our day off 2 weeks ago we saw 171 (in orange) appear with a baby
after not having one 2 hours earlier when we previously had seen her.
Then, 10 minutes later we saw her eating the placenta. Really chowing
down on it (this is the norm for mammals -- most humans are the weird
ones in that we don't take advantage of this giant protein source.
Some people do eat it and others have placenta parties to share it
with their friends. That being said, I'm not lining up for placenta
bits at the salad bar). That means that the baby was probably less
than an hour old and we saw a brand spanking new kid.

The best, however, was just a couple of days later when we were out
looking for green group. C & I split up when searching out the groups
-- especially now since they're moving their ranges a bit to take
advantage of a new tree that's flowering. I ran into yellow on the
way, and saw 155 acting strangely. She just couldn't get comfortable
and wasn't foraging with the rest of the group. She would get up, turn
around, sit down. Move a meter, sit down. Groom her vulva, get up,
turn around, sit down. No matter what she did, she just couldn't find
a good spot.

Finally I looked up and saw her vulva pulsating a bit. It'd extend
outward and then 155 would get up and turn around again. This is when
I realized that she was going to have her baby. Now. 20 meters up in
the tree. I started calling for C (we have a system of hoots -- 1
hoot- I found lemurs, 2 hoots- where the crap are you, 3
hoots/constant screaming - help). So here I am, thinking that C was
going to kill me if I saw the birth and didn't get her (she was just
talking about how cool it would be to see a baby being born, which I
didn't think would happen since most primate babies are born at night.
Turns out, not so much here).

Anyhow, so I'm hooting constantly (C was wondering what was going on
-- but she stopped to watch a yellow-billed kite) and staring at this
lemur at the top of the tree. By this time 155 has found a seat and
has her tail tucked under her bum and out in front of herself. I can
see her vulva push out and then she grooms herself. Push, groom, Push,
groom. Push -- and head appears (and some goo drips down from the tree
-- I made sure not to stand directly below her). The kid comes out
face up and she gives another push and it slides right out into her
not-so-nimble hands and she scoops it into her belly where it
immediately begins to crawl up. 155 starts grooming her new baby and
herself a little and 10 minutes later is off foraging for flowers.
Done and done. Baby. Check. It's a girl, by the way.

Everyone wants to be near the babies, groom the babies, try to steal a
baby and carry it, etc. The baby stealing is a little difficult in
lemurs since they can't really grab onto the kid. The getting on and
off of mom is mostly dependant on the kid. Mom has a really limited
role and capability for keeping the baby on board. If you are a baby
crazed lemur then you sort of try to move it with you hand and wrist
and hopefully, oh joy of joys, it might crawl onto you.

The ladies in green are particularly baby-crazed now. 23 is the only
one with a baby (C calls it Gollum-- it's kind of freaky looking) and
the females are constantly trying to groom her, and be near her, and
the dominant female 9 will sit next to 23 with her arms around her
belly so she can't walk away. 336, who is 23's 2 year old daughter, is
particularly manic. She. Wants. A. BABY.
BabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBabyBaby Baby! She can't get
enough of the kid and is always bopping around 23 now (23 used to beat
on her a lot -- abusive mom) sniffing and grooming and cuddling and
sitting on top of and trying to get hold of the baby. Whenevever we
need to find 336, we just look for 23 and there she is. It's pretty
endearing.

The kids are only a week or two old and are already riding around on
everyone (even 3 year old males). It's going to be crazy to keep track
of these kids IDs until we get them marked. At least there are a lot
of them so hopefully I'll have a good sample size left after they
start disappearing.