March 17, 2017 by Bob Yirka
(Phys.org)—A trio of researchers
from the U.K., the Netherlands and the U.S. has filmed a grown female
chimpanzee cleaning her son's teeth after he died. In their paper published in
the journal Scientific Reports, Edwin van Leeuwen, Katherine Cronin and Daniel
Haun offer a description of the circumstances under which they shot the video
and their ideas on why the female was behaving the way she was.
Chimps have been observed
cleaning one another's teeth on multiple occasions. Besides serving as a
hygienic practice, it is believed to be a bonding ritual as it typically occurs
between those that are seen to be close to one another. Chimps have also been
observed brushing the fur of dead group members. But never before has a chimp been observed tending to the
teeth of a deceased member of their group.
The researchers report that the
chimps involved were living in the wild at Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust
in Zambia and that the deceased young male chimp appeared to have died due to a
lung infection. The deceased chimp had been orphaned four years before and was
subsequently adopted by the older female. They report also that prior to the
teeth cleaning, the older chimp had cradled her adopted son's head in her hands
as she examined his teeth. She then removed a piece of straw from her mouth and
began using it to remove bits of debris from between the teeth of the deceased chimp. Another
younger female chimp, the daughter of the older female sat nearby watching. The
researchers note that as the older chimp removed the dental debris, she placed
it in her own mouth, perhaps in an attempt to understand why her son had died.
It is impossible to know the
motives of the older chimp, of course, though it is easy to apply human
emotions to the scene shown in the video—it looks like a grieving mother. But
scientists have not been able to prove that chimps feel grief, or a similar
emotion. They also have no idea to what degree chimps understand death. The
researchers suggest that the isolated activities of the chimp in the video might
offer some clues as to how mortuary rituals began in humans.
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