Chimpanzee farewell

October 17, 2009 by PZ Myers

Lying in the wheelbarrow is the body of Dorothy, a chimpanzee who died suddenly of natural causes; the people in the scene are preparing to bury her. Behind the fence is a quiet gathering of her friends.

It makes me wish I could have a conversation with a chimpanzee. I wonder what they are thinking, and how close their feelings would be to those of a human family…

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/10/chimpanzee_farewell.php

Amazing. They are so human (or maybe we are ape!). It's beautiful, sweet and poignant, too.

Have you ever seen footage of elephants fondling the bones of their long-dead, making mournful sounds.

Anyone who doubts that this is grieving is someone I don't want to meet.

Shame on us for not having learned to speak chimpanzee or elephant well enough to understand.

Always all these efforts to "teach" dolphins OUR language -- hows come we haven't yet learned theirs, I want to know.

One of the reasons I stopped eating meat, not that there's anything wrong with it.

It reinforced by veganism.

My dog is more astute about humans
than many shoppers at Wal Mart at times

I find the degree of consciousness relative
to awareness.

Most of these chimps never watch faux or go to church.
The scopes trial proved that.

:rofl:

Three Page from the NY times article well worth the time

Brian Hare of Duke University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said bonobos outperformed their chimp relatives in cooperative tasks and shared food more readily.

The emotions of caring and mourning have been observed, as in the case of the chimp mother that carried on her back the corpse of her 2-year-old daughter for days after she had died. After fights between two chimps, scientists said, others in the group were seen consoling the loser and acting as mediators to restore peace.

Devyn Carter of Emory described the sympathetic response to a chimp named Knuckles, who was afflicted with cerebral palsy. No fellow chimp was seen to take advantage of his disability. Even the alpha male gently groomed Knuckles.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/science/17chimp.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2

I was fascinated on their superior 'immediate memory' vs man

described the sympathetic response to a chimp named Knuckles, who was afflicted with cerebral palsy. No fellow chimp was seen to take advantage of his disability. Even the alpha male gently groomed Knuckles.


Much more HUMANE than humans. I've seen threads right here, where the ill are told to get to work, to pay for their being too ill to work.

I was at one of those townhalls a few weeks ago, and I heard one teabagger-type scoff, 'People have a right to healthcare? That's like saying people have a right to food!'. I can't wrap my brain around that kinda thinking.

As a whole, I like bonobos more than I like either of the other two chimp species, because bonobos have figured out how to solve many conflicts with sex instead of combat. But the other two, the common chimp and the third chimp, seem to respond to environmental stressors by fighting and killing.

Tucker

They just dont have the words. And likely the only reason why they arent like retarded humans, is cuz they dont have written language. And it's a good thing they cant talk, or write. We suck, and they would say so.

who piss me off to no end.

Sometimes I feel like a total alien for thinking that way when others regard acceptance as a virtue.

:hi:

I wonder how many people actually read it. It's from Calvin and Hobbes of course.

:hi:

Seriously, that's a solemn-looking bunch. Gotta wonder what they're thinking.

:cry:

We are not separate from the rest of nature, we are just another ape that happens to have a really, really big brain and reduced body hair.

I know mothers have been known to carry around dead babies, but how ultimately do they dispose of the dead, especially considering they have semi permanent ranges?

I tried google and nothing came up.

Thanks in advance if anyone knows.

I would think that the bodies are eventually abandoned and left to be consumed by scavengers. Some apes have been reported as indulging in cannibalism (not unlike some humans I might add).

I have heard that elephants will scatter the bones of other elephants. They don't seem to do the same with remains of other animals, just elephants. Why? Who knows?

It's a controversial field of study as it's almost impossible to remain clinically objective. Researches walk a tightrope between overly anthropomorphizing their subject on one hand and approaching it with chauvinism and condescension on the other. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frans_de_Waal">Frans de Waal has written extensively on primate behavior. You can read a pertinent excerpt from Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals http://books.google.com/books?id=L5n8znkgL9UC&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=chimps+death+wild&source=bl&ots=Nl8GIKz90d&sig=glZ0P4bG9kBlsnGgXu7XM-74m0U&hl=en&ei=m5DcSoz3LIHusgPx4-yxCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CA4Q6AEwADge#v=onepage&q=&f=false">here.

a chimp's body will not last long in the rain forest.

"Dorothy owed me money."

that these are the same sober, introspective creatures who will happily throw their shit at you, then pummel you with their superhuman strength, bite off your face and genitals, and then tear off your hands.

Yes, we could certainly learn a lesson in humanity from these gentle, thoughtful primates.



That doesn't diminish the quite striking impact of the apparent mourners, though it's worth noting that a picture tells us very little about the emotions that might be bubbling beneath the surface.

contribution to humanity.

I'm just saying that it's a mistake to gloss over the shocking violence of the nonhuman animal world for the sake of showcasing the enlightened morality of our nonhuman cousins.

but chose instead rhetorical poo

> You know, after reflecting on this thread, it occurred to me
> that these are the same sober, introspective creatures who will happily
> throw their shit at you, then pummel you with their superhuman strength,
> bite off your face and genitals, and then tear off your hands.

When I read that, I thought you were talking about the other posters ...

:hide: