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Posts Tagged ‘apes’

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

It is scary how similar we are to Chimpanzees.

After watching videos about Chimpanzee behavior, I’m a little disturbed about how similar we are them. Chimpanzees are the only other animal, besides us, that will kill without the purposes of eating or mating dominance. They seem to have other human like behaviors, like morning the dead and kissing.

In the Video where we watched the hunting party, I was shocked at how silent the Chimps got. It reminded me of my own military training. We use hand signals to inform the others to freeze or remain silent. While there was no hand singles used, watching the Chimps freeze and listen was eye opening to say the least.

Check out this video of a Chimpanzee Hunting Party.

Scientist have noticed changes in chimpanzee behaviors. These changes are similar to our own changes in culture. This is another behavior that only Humans and Chimp have. Check out this video about the culture of Chimps.

I’m not sure if I like the idea that I’m similar to an animal that I consider inferior. It means one of two things, either we as humans shouldn’t consider ourselves so evolved, or we should be considering Chimps as a close cousin that should be held in a higher regard.

At the very least, we probably should reconsider putting them in small cages. We wouldn’t put a human in such a cage, but we don’t feel that is wrong to do so for chimpanzees.