Chimpanzees Mourn Their Dead
I found a news article about Chimpanzees mourning a dead friend. I personally think this behavior is what separates us primates from other animals. The only two animals that display this behavior is us and the chimpanzees. It shows an understanding of death and the emotional loss of a loved one. Most animals only care about themselves. Chimpanzees mostly only care about themselves, but they do mourn the dead as well as kiss and teach. This and other human like behaviors such as kissing, warfare, and murder displayed by chimpanzees is important, because it perhaps shows how we evolved the behaviors that make us human. At the very least it supports the common ancestor theory. Here is the link to the article.
Please Read my other post about chimpanzee behavior: It is scary how similar we are to Chimpanzees
I read an article where a pack of wild dogs mourned the loss of the lowest female in the pack. Even Dogs mourn.
things like these really proves that Darwins theories were not baseless…..evolution is indeed a real generic based on our own footprints
"The only two animals that display this behavior is us and the chimpanzees."
Elephants
Horses mourn the loss of their friends, and their babies. Seen it numerous times, myself. They also extend comforting gestures to others, and not just of other horses. I've seen those same behaviors in dogs and cats, as well.
You obviously really don't know animals–many mate for life, so how can you say they don't have nurturing emotions, and all the other emotions that go with that.
In the glorification of our own species, we have minimized the others. We, actually, are a pretty sorry culture, for what we have done to other animals, and the earth.
only two species that mourn?…us and chimps?…i think not…i dont even study animals but am quite well aware through my own observation of the despair certain birds are thrown into when their mate dies…and have also been led to believe (from TV and from what i have read ) that elephants also mourn
Perhaps saying that they are the only ones who mourn is to strong a statement. It might have been better to say that Chimpanzees are the only species to mourn as we do and to care for the dead as we do. Chimpanzees have been known to groom the dead. This is not something other animals do. They also protect the dead from outsiders, you might call these behaviors almost funeral like. The picture above shows how human like their reactions are.
Humans Comprehension Of Life And Death
Chimps and humans, life and death
A. From “Chimps May Be Aware of Others’ Deaths”
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/04/28/chimps-may-be-aware-of-others-deaths.html
- “These (chimp) mothers understood that there was something unusual about their infants, but whether for them that indicated that the infants would never come back to life remains a fascinating open question”
- “Chimpanzees may know something of someone else’s mortality, but we have no way of knowing whether they understand their own mortality”
B. What about humans’ comprehension of life and death?
The tremendous technological evolution of some humans since our chimp time not withstanding, how much has humanity’s comprehension of life and death evolved by now?
Considering the potential tremendous practical personal and societal implications of furthering human comprehension of the origin, nature and evolution of life and the universe, humanity’s advance since its chimp time is mostly in tooling-technology, and only barely little in comprehension of its own essence…
Dov Henis
(Comments From The 22nd Century)
03.2010 Updated Life Manifest
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/54.page#5065
Cosmic Evolution Simplified
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/240/122.page#4427