Murphy, C. 2008. Socializing weaned macaques in kindergartens. Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum (electronic discussion group), March 25, 2008.

I used to do something similar when we weaned our infants. We transferred them into a pen with a big brother or big sister whos function was to 'teach the youngsters how to become adults. The trick was finding a good aunt or uncle for the kids. We re-used those adults every year when we weaned infants. It was a great way to socially house some of our older retired rhesus males and females. I think they accepted their assigned role, because the uncle or aunt would have a whole army of kids to groom her or hime (imagine one big male rhesus being groomed by 5-6 weanlings!). These adults were very tolerant of the kids, but they also taught them boundaries. In the beginning, they would allow the weanlings to cling to them, steal their food and do all kind of antics, but as time went on you could see them setting more and more limits; but they still remained very tolerant.The kindergartens were mixed-sex groups. When the animals started to become sexually active, we formed same-sex groups or new breeding troops.