ABSTRACT
Infanticide by adult or subadult males has been observed under “natural” and nonmanipulative conditions in the wild for perhaps a dozen species of nonhuman primates and is strongly suspected from circumstantial evidence for several others. These cases have been re viewed by Angst and Thommen (1977) and Hrdy (1979) and are summa rized in Table I according to social organization. As can be seen from this table, the majority of these species are found in, or adjacent to, areas of human disturbance. Such disturbance includes food provision ing, agriculture, and extensive and recent habitat destruction which may result in the compression of animals into higher densities. High population density is itself thought by several authors to be a major factor affecting the occurrence and frequency of infanticide (Eisenberg et al., 1972; Rudran, 1973,1979; Hrdy, 1974,1977a,b, 1979). Other authors consider human disturbance to be the primary cause of infanticidal behavior (Curtin and Dolhinow, 1978; Boggess, 1979 and Chapter 14, this volume).
