Stealing milk by young and reciprocal mothers: high incidence of allonursing in giraffes, Giraffa camelopardalis

Allonursing, the nursing of nonfilial offspring, has been reported in a number of mammalian species; however, very few studies have investigated more than three hypotheses. The aim of our study was to investigate seven hypotheses explaining allonursing in captive giraffes. During 2007–2011, we observed 24 females and 37 calves in four zoological gardens in the […]