London: Scientists claim to have for the first time revealed how primates react to death of close individuals, after they found that female chimpanzees mourn their dead infants.
It is known that chimpanzee mothers establish close physical relationships with their young, carrying them for up to two years and nursing them until they are six.
Now, an international team led by Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Germany has filmed how a 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 the scientists who say the research provided "unique insights into how chimpanzees, one of humans' closest primate relatives, learn about death."
Dr Katherine Cronin and Edwin Van Leeuwen of Max Planck 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," 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.
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 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."
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