SEPARATION AND DEPRESSION IN INFANT GORILLAS

Three 27-month-old infant gorillas living with their mothers and a sil verbacked male were separated to a cage for 24 weeks. The infants init ially showed threat responses and increased locomotion, characteristic of the protest stage of anaclitic depression in children. Within seve ral days, these were replaced by dorso-ventral contact among the infan ts as well as self-holding and fetal positioning. Additionally, social and solitary play and object examination occurred at lower levels thr ough separation than in the pre-separation condition. These changes we re characteristic of the despair stage of separation. There was a subs tantial recovery of many infant nonsocial and social behaviors in the later months of the separation. Upon reunion, the infants did not imme diately engage in attachment behaviors with their mothers, and spent m ore time in contact with each other than with their mothers for the fi rst several days, indicating detachment. Following this, there was an increase in mother-infant attachment behaviors. (C) 1994 John Wiley an d Sons, Inc.