Abstract

• Mother - infant relationships and infant behaviour of rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) from Shinma Taung area, Yesagyo Township, Magway Region was investigated during June, 2013 to February, 2014. The maternal care showed various motherly activities such as suckling, grooming, ventral and dorsal carrying. The behavioral data included the time spent on various infant activities. The activities patterns were observed on the focal sampling using five minutes scan at ten minutes intervals from 08:30hr to 16:30hr. A total of 288 scan samples in 1440mins of scan time were used. Based on nine months data, rhesus infant spent 20.21% of total time on grooming, followed by 16.88% on suckling, 15.14% on feeding, 14.03% on playing , 10.56% on moving (off mother), 10% on resting, 6.74% carrying infant ventrally and 6.46% carrying infant dorsally. Rhesus infant spent more time on grooming compared to the other activities. The strongest social bonds were linked between mother and infant.