Researchers
have observed a chimpanzee looking after its ‘severely disabled’ daughter in
Tanzania
5:41PM
GMT 12 Nov 2015
For
the first time in the wild scientists claim to have observed a female
chimpanzee caring for an infant with severe disabilities.
A
team of researchers from Japan’s Kyoto University studied a mother providing
care for her daughter living in the Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania
over a two-year period.
The
infant, known as XT11, was born at the park in 2011 and displayed symptoms resembling
Down's syndrome seen in other chimps in captivity.
She
lived for 23 months and researchers doubt she would have stayed alive for so
long without the help and care of her mother and sister.
Michio
Nakamura, an associate professor at the university, told the Japan Times:
"She had a fish look and kept her mouth half-open, so we assumed she had
some kind of mental handicap."
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