Baby Colobus Monkeys Grow Faster To Avoid Being Murdered By Older Males

Plants and Animals





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A group of colobus monkeys with their gray-coated younglings. Nick Fox/Shutterstock

The natural world is sometimes cruel and heartless, and infanticide isn’t as rare as you might think. Polar bears, for example, sometimes turn on and eat the young cubs of others. Now, a new piece of research has highlighted the plight of young male black-and-white colobus monkeys, who are sometimes hounded and murdered by older males looking to control the reproductive females in the area.