Infant handling by female mountain gorillas: Establishing its frequency, function, and (ir)relevance for life history evolution.

While the nature of handler-infant interactions (affiliative, abusive, etc.) remains unstudied, they could constitute alloparental care and could therefore attenuate maternal energetic burden and ultimately allow increased birth rates. However, the rarity of this behavior makes it an unlikely contributor to mountain gorillas' relatively short interbirth intervals.