It wasn’t too long ago that we (Homo sapiens) thought we were pretty special, far above and beyond the other animals. Then, one, by one, by one, the boundaries that supposedly kept us separated from the rest of the animal kingdom revealed themselves to be less than solid. We can’t even claim a monopoly on mourning anymore, and if this photo wasn’t enough to convince you of that, then two studies in the new issue of Current Biology provide close-up looks at the ways chimpanzees deal with death.

In the first study, researchers from the University of Stirling, witness and describe the final hours of Pansy, a 50-year-old female at the Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park in Stirlingshire, England, and the response of group-mates at the moment of her death. While the traumatic death of an adult chimp is usually with noisy, sometimes aggressive responses, the dying chimp’s group-mates remained mostly calm before and after her death. For several days before her death, the other chimps stayed very quiet and groomed and caressed her. At what the researchers presume was the moment of death, they closely inspected her face and tested her for signs of life. After she died they left the body alone, except for her adult daughter, who remained by her mother’s body through the night. When park staff removed the body the following morning, the group remained calm and for several days after avoided in the area where female had died (though it was normally a favored spot).

In this video from the study (tilt your head, as it’s more or less upside-down), three adult chimps gather around the dying female, nudge her, inspect her face and manipulate her head and shoulders. After not seeing any signs of life, two chimps leave and the third follows not long after.

In this video, taken the day after the chimp’s death, an adult male acts aggressively toward the body (the third display by that male observed by the researchers), but proceeds to remove straw from the body and grooms it. He is joined by an adult female, who also removes straw from the deceased’s face.

In the second study, researchers observed two infants in a semi-isolated chimpanzee community near Bossou, Guinea die from a flu-like respiratory ailment. For weeks afterward, the mothers of the dead infants continued to carry their children’s bodies around, groom them and take them to their nests during periods of rest. During this time, as the bodies mummified completely, the mothers began to “let go” of their babies. They gradually tolerated longer periods of separation from the bodies and eventually allowed other chimps in the group to handle them. Group members showed interest in the bodies and other infants and juveniles attempted to play with them.

In this video, one of the grieving mothers, Vuavua, keeps flies away from the body of her dead infant, Veve. Vuavua carried, groomed and cared for Veve’s body for a total of 19 days after death.

In this video, a juvenile chimp in the group, Fokayé, plays with the body of one of the dead infants, Jimato. Fokayé’s mother, Fotaiu (middle), appears to be a little uneasy about being touched by the corpse. This was the only time the researchers observed any of the chimps reacting to the bodies in that way. Eventually, Jimato’s mother, Jire (left), takes the Jimato’s body away. Jire carried the body for 68 days after death.

Dora Biro, lead author of the second study, says that her team’s observations confirm a mother-child bond powerful enough to persist even after death and provide all the more reason to learn more about the extent to which chimpanzees understand death in order to better understand both how chimps interpret their world and the evolutionary origins of our own perception of death.

Reference:

Anderson et al. (2010). “Pan thanatology.” Current Biology 20: 8

Biro et al. (2010). “Chimpanzee mothers at Bossou, Guinea carry the mummified remains of their dead infants.” Current Biology 20: 8