Chimpanzees mourn their dead children just like humans

Chimpanzee mothers establish close physical relationships with their young, carrying them for up to two years and nursing them until they are six. But now scientists have filmed how one chimpanzee mother, whose 16 month old infant died, apparently begins the grieving process. The ape continued to carry the body for more than 24 hours before tenderly laying on the ground. Then from a short distance she watches over her child.

Periodically she returns to the body and touches the face and neck with her fingers to establish it was dead. She then took the body to other chimpanzees in the troop to get a second opinion. The following day the chimp had abandoned the body, according to a report by scientists from the respected Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Dr Cronin said the research provided "unique insights into how chimpanzees, one of humans’ closest primate relatives, learn about death."


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Dr Katherine Cronin and Edwin Van Leeuwen together with Prof Mark Bodamer, of Gonzaga University in Washington State, and Innocent Chitalu Mulenga videoed the chimpanzee in Chimfunshi in Zambia. Dr Cronin said the research provided "unique insights into how chimpanzees, one of humans’ closest primate relatives, learn about death." She said: "After carrying the infant’s dead body for more than a day, the mother laid the body out on the ground in a clearing and repeatedly approached the body and held her fingers against the infant’s face and neck for multiple seconds.

"She remained near the body for nearly an hour, then carried it over to a group of chimpanzees and watched them investigate the body. The next day, the mother was no longer carrying the body of the infant." The report, published in the American Journal of Primatology, says almost nothing is known about how primates react to death of close individuals, what they understand about death, and whether they mourn. The researchers therefore believe they have reported a unique transitional period as the mother learned about the death of her infant, a process never before reported in detail.