in recent years photos and videos have
emerged showing great apes notably
gorillas and chimpanzees reacting to the
deaths of members of their communities
humans might interpret the reactions as
morning but is it one of the most
interesting things about these videos is
that it initiates a conversation that
hasn’t really been had that often among
scientists a research team working in
Zambia has released never-before-seen
video of a community of chimpanzees
reacting to death in their group a nine
year old chimpanzee male has died in
recent days on this day keepers at the
chim Foong Chee Wildlife orphanage trust
discovered the body for the first time
near the refuges fence line this
community of forty-three chimps has
nearly 200 acres to roam a semi-wild
area protected by the fence
the scientists on site for regularly
scheduled research were alerted and
turned on video cameras at the time we
start recording there are two three
individuals present and in the next 17
18 minutes there are 36 38 individuals
of the 43 individuals actually at least
one time visiting the body or staying
very close to the body for the full 72
minutes we see the chimpanzee is coming
together in a very small space gathering
around this body and we haven’t seen in
any other time that we’ve been watching
these chimps them all gather in such a
small space and be so calm and quiet and
motivated to stay near each other or
near the body we can’t say for sure but
they’re grouping together in a way that
we’ve never seen before
chimps are seen gently touching the body
smelling and observing many members of
the community at the time this video was
recorded last fall were suffering from a
respiratory ailment and you can actually
hear several chimps coughing
a necropsy determined the nine-year-old
died of pneumonia within about two
minutes a chimpanzee mother whose infant
daughter also died in recent days is
seen carrying her deceased daughter and
stopping within a few feet of the dead
nine-year-old this chimp mother
masya was the subject of a study
released earlier this year in the
American Journal of primatology
by the same research team video from a
previous day shows masya and another
daughter Mary inspecting the dead child
they were joined by other chimps oh
these videos are important because they
they do force one to stop and think
people who have never really considered
what chimpanzees might think about
before I imagine when they see these
videos they become interested at least
for a moment in trying to figure out
what might be possible in the minds of
other primates one of the most
interesting things about this video I
think is that it shows the opportunity
that the chimpanzees have to learn about
death in their environment and so one
striking example in the video I think is
when a female comes around and she
smacks on the body of the evidential and
why she does that we don’t know but I
think the interesting thing happens
after she smacks the body which is that
the other chimps you can see that they
actually watch the body quite closely
after she’s hit it so hard and in that
case they could be potentially learning
about how a dead body reacts differently
than than a live individual who would
have just gotten hit most of the
individuals we see are females but there
is one male who returns to the scene
several times so it seems as if the
adult male who was visiting the body for
at least four times is inspecting the
body closely in between the females and
also from a tantrum at some point he’s
screaming and walking over the body very
rapidly
he is the one who had a social a very
strong social relationship with the
response with the individual that died
he has been taking care of that
individual for more than four years the
researchers would rather not presume
that the chimps are mourning the death
of another I am reluctant to use that
word
my colleagues might have different
opinion but I think for the most part
were reluctant to use the word because
it doesn’t seem to really give us any
extra explanatory information they
behave differently as a group as in any
other situation as we have seen before
whether we can call that morning and
what it entail exactly based on what we
know in humans is morning is just
difficult to to say for anybody I would
say the scientists have released this
video in the hope that other researchers
will see it and have the chance to
videotape similar scenes it’s hoped that
a compilation of data and video evidence
will help answer questions about our
primate cousins and whether they might
have similar thoughts about death to
ours
you
emerged showing great apes notably
gorillas and chimpanzees reacting to the
deaths of members of their communities
humans might interpret the reactions as
morning but is it one of the most
interesting things about these videos is
that it initiates a conversation that
hasn’t really been had that often among
scientists a research team working in
Zambia has released never-before-seen
video of a community of chimpanzees
reacting to death in their group a nine
year old chimpanzee male has died in
recent days on this day keepers at the
chim Foong Chee Wildlife orphanage trust
discovered the body for the first time
near the refuges fence line this
community of forty-three chimps has
nearly 200 acres to roam a semi-wild
area protected by the fence
the scientists on site for regularly
scheduled research were alerted and
turned on video cameras at the time we
start recording there are two three
individuals present and in the next 17
18 minutes there are 36 38 individuals
of the 43 individuals actually at least
one time visiting the body or staying
very close to the body for the full 72
minutes we see the chimpanzee is coming
together in a very small space gathering
around this body and we haven’t seen in
any other time that we’ve been watching
these chimps them all gather in such a
small space and be so calm and quiet and
motivated to stay near each other or
near the body we can’t say for sure but
they’re grouping together in a way that
we’ve never seen before
chimps are seen gently touching the body
smelling and observing many members of
the community at the time this video was
recorded last fall were suffering from a
respiratory ailment and you can actually
hear several chimps coughing
a necropsy determined the nine-year-old
died of pneumonia within about two
minutes a chimpanzee mother whose infant
daughter also died in recent days is
seen carrying her deceased daughter and
stopping within a few feet of the dead
nine-year-old this chimp mother
masya was the subject of a study
released earlier this year in the
American Journal of primatology
by the same research team video from a
previous day shows masya and another
daughter Mary inspecting the dead child
they were joined by other chimps oh
these videos are important because they
they do force one to stop and think
people who have never really considered
what chimpanzees might think about
before I imagine when they see these
videos they become interested at least
for a moment in trying to figure out
what might be possible in the minds of
other primates one of the most
interesting things about this video I
think is that it shows the opportunity
that the chimpanzees have to learn about
death in their environment and so one
striking example in the video I think is
when a female comes around and she
smacks on the body of the evidential and
why she does that we don’t know but I
think the interesting thing happens
after she smacks the body which is that
the other chimps you can see that they
actually watch the body quite closely
after she’s hit it so hard and in that
case they could be potentially learning
about how a dead body reacts differently
than than a live individual who would
have just gotten hit most of the
individuals we see are females but there
is one male who returns to the scene
several times so it seems as if the
adult male who was visiting the body for
at least four times is inspecting the
body closely in between the females and
also from a tantrum at some point he’s
screaming and walking over the body very
rapidly
he is the one who had a social a very
strong social relationship with the
response with the individual that died
he has been taking care of that
individual for more than four years the
researchers would rather not presume
that the chimps are mourning the death
of another I am reluctant to use that
word
my colleagues might have different
opinion but I think for the most part
were reluctant to use the word because
it doesn’t seem to really give us any
extra explanatory information they
behave differently as a group as in any
other situation as we have seen before
whether we can call that morning and
what it entail exactly based on what we
know in humans is morning is just
difficult to to say for anybody I would
say the scientists have released this
video in the hope that other researchers
will see it and have the chance to
videotape similar scenes it’s hoped that
a compilation of data and video evidence
will help answer questions about our
primate cousins and whether they might
have similar thoughts about death to
ours
you
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