Posts tagged "chimpanzees"

When an elderly chimpanzee died in Scotland two years ago, her three closest companions appeared to comfort each other, holding vigil over the body and displaying other human-like signs of grief, suggesting the primates may better understand death and dying than previously thought.

The death of the elderly chimp, Pansy, and the effects on her group were captured on video in late 2008 and documented in the journal Current Biology.

Researchers at the University of Stirling and the Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park watched what happened during Pansy's final days. As Pansy got sicker, her adult daughter, Rosie, and two other chimps stayed by her side at night and groomed her more than usual. When she died, they appeared to check her body for signs of life. The chimps slept erratically and were especially quiet the next day as her keepers took the chimp away.

For weeks after Pansy's death, the surviving chimps remained lethargic and ate less than normal, much like a person who lost a close relative or "mothers with dying infants," researchers said.

While many of us may think, "of course chimpanzees experience loss when one of their family dies," getting further insight into how the animals perceive and process death is useful. The authors propose that "chimpanzees' awareness of death has been underestimated," and suggested zoos rethink how they care for elderly and ill chimps. Instead of removing terminally ill animals from the group for treatment or euthanasia, as is the common practice, it might be more humane to let the group stay together and allow the animal to die naturally, the study suggests.

Scientists in Africa have embarked on two ambitious projects to keep dwindling colonies of wild chimpanzees from dying out.

In Guinea, West Africa, just 13 chimpanzees remain in a virtual island of trees near the Bossou village, an Oxford University zoologist told USA Today.

Zoologist Dora Biro explained that the fading colony is just three-and-a-half miles from a mountain range "full of chimpanzees" that could provide a continuous influx of new residents. The problem is, the groups are separated by a wide stretch of savanna that makes the journey too dangerous.

So since 1997, the Japanese biologists who established Bossou as one of the world's six sites for the long-term study of chimps in the wild have been working with Guinean researchers and local villagers to plant a corridor of trees across the savanna. The researchers hope the Green Corridor Project will re-establish the migration between the chimp populations.

"The trees still need to grow before they're at all passable for chimps," Biro told USA Today. "The idea is if this corridor does work, if the trees survive, it will give chimps access both in and out, and that could save the community."

A group of chimpanzees at Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland have been handed special cameras in order to capture footage for a BBC2 nature documentary called "The Chimpcam Project," playing across the pond.

After Primatologist Betsy Herrelko came up with the idea, each of the eleven furry primates was handed -- wait for it -- a Chimpcam (housed inside a box for protection) in order to record as much of a first-hand portrayal as humanly possible, documenting their lifestyle in an eighteen-month-long study for the two-part series.

Stars of the doc include Cindy, Ricky, Emma, David, Kilimi, Kindia, Liberius, Lucy, Lyndsey, and Qafzeh, all of whom we like to think are famous enough to not need last names. (Also, they're chimps).