Chimps grieve just like humans

Los Angeles: Some chimpanzees seem to grieve similarly to humans in the face of a fellow chimp's death, two new studies have found.

Scientists said the animals comforted the dying, experienced trauma after death, and had trouble letting their loved ones go.

The research, published Monday in the journal Current Biology, provided a window onto a less public aspect of primate life, the authors said.

Researchers at the University of Stirling and at Blair Drummond Safari Park in the United Kingdom reported how they watched how three chimpanzees, kept in heated indoor quarters during the winter, react as a fourth chimp, an elderly female named Pansy, sickened and died.

Pansy had been separated from the other chimpanzees for treatment when she became ill. But when her breathing became erratic a few weeks later, the other three chimps were allowed to join her. In the 10 minutes before she died, the three animals frequently groomed and caressed Pansy.

When she died "they appeared to arrive at a collective decision that something had changed, and she was no longer the same as she was beforehand," said lead author James Anderson.