Reaction to the death of the oldest female in a group of chimpanzees at the Municipal Zoological Garden, Warsaw.

Abstract

In March 2017, the oldest female of a group of chimpanzees living in the Municipal Zoological Garden in Warsaw, died in her sleep at the age of 53, due to natural causes. The article reports reactions of the eight other individuals in the group, four males and four females, including the daughter and the granddaughter of the old female, the following day. The corpse generally elicited more interest in the females than in the adult males. The females touched the body gently and groomed it more often than the males, who tended simply to look at and sniff it. However, the most diverse reactions, ranging from gentle touching to jumping on and hitting the corpse, were seen in the youngest male. By contrast, the oldest male never approached the corpse. In general, the chimpanzees at the zoo reacted in a manner much milder than is often reported from the wild.