ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters have shown that most of a baboon’s relaxed, friendly interactions with members of the opposite sex involve a few special friends. Friends groom often, spend time near one another, and exhibit an ease in one another’s company rarely found in interactions between other males and females. Although many, perhaps most, friendships begin while the female is cycling, the bond that develops transcends this brief period of sexual activity and persists through the female’s pregnancy and period of lactation. Some friendships last for years; a few may continue for the rest of the animals’ lives.
