Chimps and Dying.

[panzerfaust]

"A video of the reaction of chimps to the death of an elderly group mate challenges procedures for dealing with terminally ill animals in captivity ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/apr/26/chimps-emotional-response-death-film



... In the final hour, they huddled around, studied her face and shook her gently as if to revive her. And when the others had drifted away, one stayed behind to hold her hand...."

Anthropomorphism? No, just observation.

[AnArmyVeteran]

1. I am not ready to watch it, but I know animals in the wild have more empathy than a lot of humans...

[panzerfaust]

3. Yeah. I could not watch it either...

I have seen enough death in my life.

But we often forget that we are NOT the only sentient species on the planet.

[Roon]

5. I think elephants mourn too

not sure..

[AnArmyVeteran]

10. Yes, they do, very much so... They have a heart breaking cry of loneliness for their lost mate...

[DesertFlower]

11. they do.

i think it was 60 minutes did a story about it.

[Cherchez la Femme]

19. They sure do

they recognize the bones of long-dead family members and, for lack of a better term 'caress' them.
It sure looks like mourning to me.

[Cherchez la Femme]

18. I hate death

it scares me so. I thought I would be crying after watching this, but all I could think was "It's beautiful".

[AnArmyVeteran]

2. I am not ready to watch it, but I know animals in the wild have more empathy than a lot of humans...

[Roon]

4. I can't watch

I saw a video on the discovery channel of a baby chimp getting mauled by a crocodile and his mother was able to snatch him from the jaws. It was too late, the baby died and the mother kept holding him and looking at him............so sad.

[d_r]

6. chimpanzees

and orangutans too, are self-aware. Gorillas also.

[greencharlie]

7. k&r for a touching story. nt...

[polly7]

8. ) - : Amazing video.

A friend of my sister had a small farm and a few exotic animals for the kids to visit. One small chimpanzee had a stillborn baby, she carried it around for nearly a week, not letting it be taken from her .. not eating, sleeping. The other chimps guarded her, all very upset. Sad thing to see. I imagine giving it up to a human was terrifying for her.

[Tumbulu]

13. This year one of my ewe's had a lamb that died

and she would not leave it for a week. She stayed with it night and day until at last she let me move it away to where the vultures or the fox could eat it. It was heartbreaking to watch. I just could not take it away from her until she seemed OK with me picking it up. This is not at all common with my sheep, however.

[polly7]

15. Awww, poor thing. I believe all animals are capable of some sort

of grief. We were gone on holidays for a few days and I'd asked a neighbour to check my horses. When we returned one of my mares had, I believe, been chased by a coyote and broken her leg in a gopher hole, dying. She'd been gone I imagine the first day we left. The other horses led me to her when I called out her name but as soon as I was there ...... they ran off. Very unusual, normally they'd bicker with each other just to be close. It seemed like they were angry with me for weeks, something in them was just off. I still feel so guilty she obviously laid there suffering.

[Tumbulu]

27. how very sad

it is hard enough to leave them and then good grief- how terrible for all of you.

Sending condolences.

[polly7]

28. Thanks Tumbulu. Yes, it was horrible, I'd saved her as a baby

from the meat trucks and she was sweet, loyal and an amazing little mare. Quite a shock to find her that way.

[madokie]

9. I'm too weak to watch

but I've seen birds show sadness at the passing of their mate. especially doves, they'll keep coming back and checking, hoping.

[demigoddess]

12. i had a cat that would play with my very retarded daughter and comfort her

I can imagine chimps being even more.

[Arugula Latte]

20. My female kitty knows when I am upset and comes and puts her paws on my shoulders

and searches my face as if to say "What's wrong, Mom?"

[Bozita]

14. The meaning of the term "humanity" is better seen in *lower* life forms

[Mari333]

16. got that right

I have always learned more about kindness, love, and empathy from the non human animals.
the human animals often get on my nerves.

[lonestarnot]

17. Sadness.

[Cherchez la Femme]

21. Part II of video. Description: "adult male chimp displays aggression

towards the corpse of an elderly female who died peacefully the previous afternoon..."

Immediately after his 'aggression', a smaller chimp (assuming female) moves in and interacts with the male (touches him, appears to stop & calm him -- then he actually appears to do a little grooming himself!) then she cares for the body of the dead elderly female. It's quite remarkable.

Now, who can say why the male acted that way? Freaked out about death? (Kinda) saying 'Get up!'?
I don't think we can just say that the male is acting deliberately aggressively, although it certainly could be possible; it may be something we just don't understand... He pounced on the hay around her like you were shaking the mattress around someone you wanted to wake up, it did not appear to me he actually touched or abused her body.

Huh, guess I'm not a very good Feminazi eh? I better get to work on that, so here:
It's interesting they didn't mention that part in the article. Too Politically Incorrect?
Still, it happened.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SQR_PaCtEE&feature=related

[BlooInBloo]

22. Awww. Well if our evolutionary cousins are like that, it would be interesting to chase...

that behavior back up to a common ancestor of ours.

[Blue-Jay]

23. Yep. They're just like people.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MhRRZn0fCOQ/R2BJ4bwxPPI/AAAAAAAAAQM/7bNnAZECkwE/s400/monkey+love.jpg

[stanwyck]

25. I saw this story this morning on BBC America

I believe it's time we started recognizing that animals have souls.

[Odin2005]

24. K&R

[Ignis]

26. K&R + some related reading:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6775301