Responses of chimpanzees to a recently dead community member at Gombe National Park, Tanzania

Abstract

Chimpanzee responses to the death of a group member have rarely been observed in the wild and most instances involve infant deaths. One of the very few detailed accounts of a group's response to the death of an adult community member is from Gombe National Park, Tanzania, where Teleki [Folia Primatologica 20:81-94, 1973] observed the responses of 16 chimpanzees to an accidental death, none of whom touched the body. Now, almost 40 years later, we report on the behaviors of 16 (different) Gombe individuals to the recently dead body of an adult female community member. In stark contrast to Teleki's account, we observed individual chimpanzees' responses to range from curious observation and passive investigation (e.g. smelling and grooming) to the shaking, dragging, and frustrated beating of the body. Variation across demographic groups is described and may reflect individuals' past experience with death. The implications of our observations are discussed in the context of core morbidity traits shared between humans and chimpanzees.

Wild American crows gather around their dead to learn about danger

“…Black-billed magpies, Pica hudsonia (Miller & Bringham, 1998), western scrub-jays, Aphelocoma californica (Iglesias, McElreath, & Patricelli, 2012), chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes (Stewart, Piel, & O'Malley, 2012), African elephants, Loxodonta africana (Douglas-Hamilton, Bhalla, Wittemyer, & Vollrath, 2006), and bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops aduncus (Dudzinski et al, 2003), are among those that congregate around or touch and groom dead conspecifics. The evolutionary basis for these behaviours in mammals remains unclear (McComb, Baker, & Moss, 2006).…”

Behavioral responses to injury and death in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)

“…Responses to dying and dead conspecifics have been documented in several non- dead, is widely considered uniquely human (Counts and Counts, 1991), and certain reports 51 have contended that it is absent in non-human primate species such as geladas (Theropithecus 52 gelada; Fashing et al, 2011), and individual chimpanzee populations (Stewart et al, 2012). (Campbell, pers.…”

Tool use for corpse cleaning in chimpanzees

“…Furthermore, the records of death responses in non-human animals to date do not contain any elements of tool use8. In fact, whereas the limited documentations of chimpanzees’ responses in death-related situations range from passive behaviours like resting, to active behaviours like dragging and slapping the dead body9, gentle corpse handling in form of tool-assisted dental cleaning (see Supplementary Videos 1 and 2) has never been reported and warrants scientific interest both from an intraspecific and comparative point of view8. In particular, the reported corpse handling in chimpanzees may suggest that chimpanzees have evolved in complex social organizations conducive to the emergence of post-mortem affiliation10.…”