In a message dated 7/1/99 5:37:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << I've understood breastfeeding isn't instinctive in higher graded mammals as humans and apes are. It is learned behaviour on the mothers part. If an ape isn't breastfed herself, and she hadn't been exposed to nursing babies she simply doens't know what to do. She picks up then baby but doesn't put it to the breast and the baby dies.>> Annelies, I agree with you on this. We had a bad run of mother gorillas refusing their young a little over 10 years ago at our area zoo. A volunteer mom brought her 9 month old to the zoo once a week and in an area that was private and only viewed by the gorillas this mother breastfed her baby. The pregnant gorilla went on to bond and breastfeed her baby beautifully and this gorilla taught all the others. Heck, they even went on to tandem nurse without incident. Funny that the zoo thought this was normal but doctors didn't. Sue *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html