What do apes do with their dead

When a female named Flo died, her son Flint - who had been highly dependent on his mother - began to show symptoms of clinical depression.

Flint stopped engaging in social interactions and refused to eat. A study on New World monkeys observed that not only do primates grieve, some have even shown signs of caring for dying members of their troop. A female marmoset fell out a tree and collided headfirst with an object buried in the ground.

The male marmoset, with whom she had been paired for around three and a half years, shielded her from the attention of other marmosets until she died two hours later. These can last for up to five days. In , the Camperdown Wildlife Centre in Dundee closed for just under a week to allow a troop of lion-tailed macaque time to mourn when one of their young died.

Sometimes, however, instead of standing guard over a corpse, the deceased infant is carried as the troop travels. Primate mothers have been known to carry the bodies of infants for extended periods of time 10 days or longer , but, a study on Death among primates shows it is a matter of hot debate whether these mothers are actually aware that their offspring has died.

ScienceDaily, 3 April Gorillas gather around and groom their dead. Retrieved November 13, from www. This behavior was observed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is documented in a new ScienceDaily shares links with sites in the TrendMD network and earns revenue from third-party advertisers, where indicated. Print Email Share. Boy or Girl? Living Well. View all the latest top news in the environmental sciences, or browse the topics below:.

Keyword: Search. There are many stories about apes and monkeys grieving for their dead. For example, a BBC documentary in appeared to show a group of langur monkeys grieving for what they believe is a dead baby—even though it was actually just a robotic spy monkey.

The same year, scientists observed a chimpanzee using tools to clean the body of a deceased group member. A female sat down with the dead male and used a firm stem of grass to clean his teeth.

The practice, researchers say, suggests chimps may have a more sophisticated response to death than we currently know. Often this involves carrying the dead around—especially mothers and their dead babies. Species that are unable to grasp objects—such as lemurs and tamarins—are observed trying to carry their dead even though they lack the ability.