The mother-offspring bond is one of the strongest and most essential social bonds. Following is a detailed behavioral report of a female chimpanzee 2 days after her 16-month-old infant died, on the first day that the mother is observed to create distance between her and the corpse. A series of repeated approaches and retreats to and from the body are documented, along with detailed accounts of behaviors directed toward the dead infant by the mother and other group members. The behavior of the mother toward her dead infant not only highlights the maternal contribution to the mother-infant relationship but also elucidates the opportunities chimpanzees have to learn about the sensory cues associated with death, and the implications of death for the social environment.

The social behavior of chimpanzees has been extensively studied, yet not much is known about how they behave in response to the death of a group member. Here, we provide a detailed report of the reactions of a group of chimpanzees to finding the dead body of a 9-year-old male group member. The behavior of the group was characterized by quiet attendance and close inspections punctuated by rare displays. Moreover, the body was continuously attended and closely inspected by several adults and juveniles, including an adult male who formed a close social bond with the deceased individual after the deceased individual's mother died 4 years earlier. When considered with observations of how chimpanzees respond to dead infants and adults in this group and in others, these observations suggest that chimpanzees' responses to death may be mediated by social bonds with the deceased individual. The results are discussed in light of recent reports on chimpanzees' reactions to dead community members and more general primate thanatology. Am. J. Primatol. 78:914-922, 2016.

In a highly social species like chimpanzees, the process by which individuals become attuned to their social environment may be of vital importance to their chances of survival. Typically, this socialization process, defined by all acquisition experiences and fine-tuning efforts of social interaction patterns during ontogeny, occurs in large part through parental investment. In this study, we investigated whether maternal presence enhances the socialization process in chimpanzees by comparing the social interactions of orphaned and mother-reared individuals at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust in Zambia. As response variables, we selected social interactions during which an elaborate level of fine-tuning is assumed to be necessary for sustaining the interaction and preventing escalation: social play. Comparing orphaned (n = 8) to sex- and age-matched mother-reared juvenile chimpanzees (n = 9), we hypothesized that the orphaned juveniles would play less frequently than the mother-reared and would be less equipped for fine-tuning social play (which we assayed by rates of aggression) because of the lack of a safe and facilitating social environment provided by the mother. First, contrary to our hypothesis, results showed that the orphaned juveniles engaged in social play more frequently than the mother-reared juveniles, although for significantly shorter amounts of time. Second, in support of our hypothesis, results showed that social play of the orphaned juveniles more often resulted in aggression than social play of the mother-reared juveniles. In conjunction, these results may indicate that, just like in humans, chimpanzee mothers provide their offspring with adequate social skills that might be of pivotal importance for future challenges like successful group-living and securing competitive fitness advantages.

Protophones are considered to be precursors of speech. These vocalizations have been notably discussed in relation to toys and their importance for developing language skills. However, little is known about how natural objects, compared to artificial objects, may affect protophone production, an approach that could additionally help reconstruct how language evolved. In the current study, we examined protophone production in 58 infants (4–18 months) while interacting with their caregivers when using natural objects, household items, and toys. The infants were recorded in their home environment, in a rural area in Zambia. The results showed that the infants produced significantly fewer protophones when using natural objects than when using household items or toys. Importantly, this pattern was found only for the younger preverbal infants, and there was no indication in the data that the level of caregiver responsiveness differed with regard to the object type. Furthermore, the infants of the present work selected primarily the household items when exposed to both natural objects and household items. These findings suggest that natural objects are less likely to promote protophone production and, consequently, language skill development than artificial objects in preverbal infants, who seem to favor the latter, perhaps due to their features designed for specific functional purposes. Furthermore, these findings provide empirical evidence that the use of complex tools in social interactions may have helped to promote the evolution of language among hominins.