A mother's grief: The startling images which show how chimpanzees mourn their dead just like humans

Source

Chimpanzees appear to mourn their dead infants just like humans, scientists have discovered.

Chimpanzee mothers establish close physical relationships with their young, carrying them for up to two years and nursing them until they are six.

But now scientists have filmed how one chimpanzee mother, whose 16-month-old infant died, apparently begins the grieving process.

It's the latest evidence highlighting just how similar chimps and other great apes are to humans

Grieving process: A chimpanzee mother tenderly lays her dead 16-month-old infant on the ground after carrying the body for more than 24 hours. Scientists filmed this heartbreaking footage in Chimfunshi, Zambia


Devastated: Struggling to take in the news, the mother then moves to a nearby grass bank and watches over the body of her dead child


Second opinion: The mother then invites other chimpanzees over to the body, touching the face and neck with her fingers to confirm it is dead



To see how close animals are to us is unbelievable. To think of how we have treated and how we are treating these animals is heart wrenching. It is obvious we share very similar emotions to us and we exploit that beyond belief. I hope the people that are doing unthinkable things to these animals see things like this as truly realize that they are brothers to our race.

I had to share this because it is a great thing to prove how similar we are to each other. We have spent so long thinking that we are "above" all animals out there, only to be proven wrong time and time again. Dolphins are unbelievable, same with whales and now chimps (which most people knew all along.)

I hope things like this make people realize that all animals on this earth including us have a place here, most have earned it more than us, as we are a fairly new species, and should be left in peace.

Anyway, hope you enjoy, I looked around but couldn't find this on here, so I had to share it.

Any thoughts?

Pred...

so sad nice find

2nd line

well if humans keep up learning maybe just maybe we wont be so argent.
On the other hand ten mints after this film was made a poacher killed the mother to sell her body parts
on the black market.

The suffering or sadness of any creature ties my stomach into knots... I almost wish humans were the only creatures capable of feeling such things as it would comfort me a little bit to think at least some can escape that emotion.

I really think grief is the reason humans have invented the idea of an afterlife, to ease the suffering of those left behind. Which still makes me wonder why we feel bad for something/someone that has died, as regardless of your beliefs (unless your a fan of the hell idea) the dead are not suffering, only us.

Originally posted by predator0187
I had to share this because it is a great thing to prove how similar we are to each other. We have spent so long thinking that we are "above" all animals out there, only to be proven wrong time and time again.

We share something like 98% of our DNA with Chimps, more than any other animal, even more than the 97% we shared with Neanderthal's with whom we interbred. Not sure I follow that logic completely since we don't interbreed with Chimps but those are the numbers they give us so I suppose it matters which 2-3% don't match.

There's a great video on youtube about alcoholic monkeys:



They have about the same percentage of alcoholics in their monkey population as in the human population so another striking and to me a little unexpected similarity. But there is one difference, the monkeys seem to be OK with their leaders being alcoholics whereas that's not the case with humans!

Watching the poor mother monkey was heart wrenching. I'm sure she was shocked and couldn't believe her baby was really dead and kept checking. So very sad.

This is very sad indeed.

I wish I could add more but the video speaks for itself. Just wanna show my sympathy for the chimp.

Good find! To think that some chimpanzees actully mourn there dead is heart wrencing.Its just not us that grief its other animals too.Its so terribly sad to see a mother chimpanzee mourn in such a state.She was in shock.She just could'nt believe that her baby was dead.She must of felt so hopeless.She just could'nt believe her eyes.It was just so heart breaking.Really was.