Developmental changes in feeding behaviors of infant chimpanzees at Mahale, Tanzania: Implications for nutritional independence long before cessation of nipple contact.

This study suggests that M1 eruption in wild Eastern Chimpanzees is an index of the period when infants move toward nutritional independence with a key dietary transition. This is the first study to provide behavioral evidence of the large temporal gap between nutritional independence of infants and reconception of mothers in great apes, and clarify the unique feature of human life history whereby mothers can reconceive before an infant reaches nutritional independence.