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  3. Comfort-Suckling

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Comfort-Suckling

An adolescent female, or other non-lactating female, permitting a calf to Suckle from her; or a calf Suckling from a non-lactating female.

Media caption

When the clip start we see Matriarch Selengei who is feeding. We hear a calf giving a Baroo-Rumble with a complaining tone. The camera pans to the left and reveals a one year old female calf who is separated from her mother. As she moves in the direction of her mother, who is out of view to the left, two adolescent females Head-Raise and Ear-Lift and reach Trunk-to-Mouth to reassure her. She cries out with another Baroo-Rumble.

One adolescent female touches her Trunk-to-Mouth for several seconds and then turns away and the calf follows her while Trunk-Sucking. As the calf approaches her, she begin to raise her trunk in a Solicit-Suckle and simultaneously the adolescent female adopt a Suckle-Stance by putting her leg forward to allow the calf to Comfort-Suckle. The calf Comfort-Suckles for a few seconds. As she begins Comfort-Suckling her mother appears in frame in the left foreground. (Maasai Mara, Kenya)

Other examples of the behavior