Chimpanzees mourn death like humans

Article and film taken from guardian.co.uk

Chimpanzees were caught on film at Drummond safari park by scientists.
In the final hour, they huddled around, studied her face and shook her gently as if to revive her. And when the others had drifted away, one stayed behind to hold her hand.

See video below which was taken at Drummond safari park by scientists and has been released today.

As death scenes go, it has all the poignancy of human loss, but this was no everyday tragedy. The last breath was drawn before scientists’ cameras and represents one of the most extraordinary displays of chimpanzee behaviour ever recorded.

Video footage of the death of Pansy, who at fifty-something was the oldest chimpanzee in the UK, was released by scientists today. The film captures for the first time the complex reactions of our nearest evolutionary cousins to the death of a group member.

Studying the apes’ behaviour could tell us as much about ourselves as the attachments and responses to death that chimpanzees exhibit within their groups and families, scientists believe. It could also challenge procedures for dealing with terminally ill animals in captivity.

Some of these behaviours have never been seen before in chimpanzees. It leads us to ask questions about the evolutionary origins of our own response to death and dying in a member of our own group or family,” said Jim Anderson, an expert in the social behaviour of non-human primates at Stirling University in Scotland, who recorded the footage. “Many of our greatest philosophical questions concern death and dying and how we perceive it and deal with it.”

Pansy, a female who died of old age at Blair Drummond Safari Park at the end of 2008, was one of four chimpanzees being filmed by Anderson’s group. When she became ill, vets paid regular visits to give treatment, while her companions – her daughter, a male and another female – looked on from a distance.

When Pansy lay down in a nest that one of the other apes had made, the rest gathered around her and began grooming and caressing her. Shortly before she died, all three crouched down and inspected her face very closely. They then began to shake her gently. “It is difficult to avoid thinking that they were checking for signs of life,” said Anderson.

“After a time, it seemed that the chimpanzees arrived at a collective decision that she had gone. Two left immediately, but one, the other adult female, stayed and held her hand,” said Anderson. “That evening, her daughter came back and stayed with her mother all night long. She was trying to sleep, but was clearly very disturbed. All three of them were.”

Chimpanzees are rare, even among nonhuman primates, in displaying self-awareness and empathy to other individuals. An animal may only respond to death in an apparently emotional way once these abilities have evolved, Anderson said.

The chimps’ behaviour contrasts starkly with accounts of chimps being killed during encounters with other animals in the wild. Typically, groups react to violent deaths by going into a mass frenzy. Anderson, whose research is published in the journal Current Biology, described the behaviour of chimps at Blair Drummond after a death as “serene”.

The footage has led him to call into question the wisdom of removing terminally ill animals from their enclosures shortly before they die. “At least in some cases, it might be better for all concerned to allow the animal to die in the comfort of familiar surroundings,” he said.

Other extraordinary footage of chimps dealing with death is reported in a second paper in the same journal

Dora Biro, a researcher at Oxford University, witnessed the deaths of five chimpanzees, including two infants, in a community living in the forests of Bossou in Guinea. The mothers of the two infants, which were killed by a respiratory disease, carried their dead offspring for weeks and months.

During that time the two infant corpses became mummified, but the mothers continued to groom the bodies and carried them to their day and night nests as though there were alive. Over time, the mothers began to allow others in the group to handle the corpses and went longer periods without them.
“Chimpanzees are humans’ closest evolutionary relatives, and they have already been shown to resemble us in many of their cognitive functions. They empathise with others, have a sense of fairness, and can cooperate to achieve goals,” said Biro. “How they perceive death is a fascinating question and little data exist so far concerning chimpanzees’ responses to the passing of familiar or related individuals either in captivity or in the wild.”

She added: “Our observations confirm the existence of an extremely powerful bond between mothers and their offspring which can persist, remarkably, even after the death of the infant, and they further call for efforts to elucidate the extent to which chimpanzees understand and are affected by the death of a close relative or group-mate.

“This would both have implications for our understanding of the evolutionary origins of human perceptions of death and provide insights into the way chimpanzees interpret the world around them.”

Below is a photograph taken by a volunteer in a sanctuary in the Cameroon which shows a female chimpanzee who has died being shown to the group of chimpanzees she came from.

Football mania

Thanks to Silver from CSWCT and Ngamba Island, Silver organised a football match between our volunteers and the pupils of Kennedy school. It was great fun to play against such brilliant players from the school.  A mixture of girls and boys were waiting to play us, and before hand, told us they were fans of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal and were all in their school football kits.

We were told by them that we needed to warm up so the school football team showed us some exersises to do which us as volunteers tried very hard to keep up with!

We then met them in the middle to shake hands and begin the game.  Jo helped us the most as she was very good with the rules and positions on the football field so we all decided where would play on the pitch.

Silver said he would help us in the goal which was also great knews for us!

The play commenced and it was great fun, the rest of the school had joined us at the side of the field and were cheering both of the teams on.  It happened to be a very muddy and wet football pitch in places, where most of our team were falling down in.  Each time this happened a roar of laughter and cheers were heard from around the pitch, as none of the school football team were falling over like we were.

The Yebo volunteers got very tired quickly and we asked the referee for a 15 minute half time call.  All of the school however were far fitter than we were, as the Yebo volunteers were very out of breath and needed a break!

Kate ran ahead and scored our first goal in the first half and the rest of us cheered and ‘high fived’! Dee and Nicole took photos on the side and looked after our bottles of water which were well needed at half time.

The second half was even funnier, with Emmy and Lisa falling over several times in the mud, with Emmy scoring a second goal for us (with the help of the supporters at the side) who very kindly kicked the ball back to us so we could score.

All of us started to get very tired and it became apparent that we needed to stop, the longest 15 minutes of our day as we stopped running for the ball and couldn’t keep up with our opponents who went on to score another 5 goals, making the winning score to them 7-2!

All of us were very happy to have played the school and were very thankful to the pupils, teachers and to Silver for organising this for us as we really enjoyed the afternoon.

We went away with smiles, mud stains and thoughts that we were now expert football players, maybe you will see us at the world cup in June!

Visiting the slum “The place where we call home”

Today Patrick from ‘Raising up hope’ decided he wanted our volunteers to be taken to a slum, based just outside of Kampala.  This is just one of the places that Patrick goes to work with children who are sleeping on the streets and who have run away from home.  This slum however was one of the places where no tourist or local Ugandan would visit.

No pictures or words can really describe what we saw or felt on this day where we learned first hand where the children at Patricks centre came from.

One thing we can describe though, were the smiles that yet again, were there amoungst the hardship.

“The place where we call home”

Feelings through art, using animals and expression

On the afternoon of each visit the children had to the centre, we were able to work with them using art. The younger children worked with us, painting and expressing themselves through the drawing and paintings that they did with us. It was great to see them really using colour to express their feelings.  They were joined by us as volunteers as we spread paper and paints all over the floor.  We encouraged them to use colour to just draw and paint.  Our aim was to just let the children express themselves rather than us telling them what to draw.  Children will be very expressive using colour, even if they are unable to draw something specific.  The children we worked with from Raising up hope were the younger children.  Some of these children are too young to understand the consept of telling them to draw their feelings, so allowing them to express through colour became increasingly relavant.  Some of them used their hands and feet to paint while some of them did draw pictures of the animals and Patrick from Raising up hope told them that they may if they wish, paint about the day they had had.  The children made some creative pieces of work, as well as face painting which was great fun.  The children appeared to enjoy themselves alot, as there were lots of smiles and laughter.  Some of the children needed more help than others, which us as volunteers were able to get more involved in.

The second day we enjoyed a day of painting feelings with our group of children from KYDA which we had visited previously. The children were older and we based the artwork on feelings describing their life.  The children came up with some wonderful drawings and paintings which they took great care over. The feelings were full of expression.  After the children had finished their drawings we sat in a circle with them, where each child stood in the middle of the circle one by one, showing us their picture and then explaining their meaning of the painting.  Many of them spoke about themselves and their families and the negatives and positives that were in their lives.  Each child however, brought a positive attitude into their work.  We as volunteers found this very exciting and interesting.  After this the children performed a drama play to us that they had made up that day where they  told a story through song and dance and acting about wildlife and conservation.  We found that this was full of expression and showed us the work that was able to be done involving feelings and conservation through music, art and drama

We then took the children down to the front of Lake Victoria which the children seemed to enjoy.  They had a chance to chat to us as volunteers and even taught us a Ugandan song and a dance which we all took part in.  We were able to talk to them more about their families and past experiences and how and why they had come to the centre where they lived.

This was a great expereince for all of us as volunteers and we hope that the children enjoyed their day too.

The flower in the slum

Written by  Peace Nakitto

The children of KYDA put up an amazing concert of music, dance and drama. This wasn’t just about staging up an entertaining time for the volunteers, but letting us all know that in the middle of all our challenges, there is something good. Their voices reach out through the slums, where nobody really dares go, they feel that their music, dance and drama can change this and make a difference for so many other children. In a their lyrics, the children sing;
This is where flowers grow
In different colours they glow
They give birth to joy every morning
Where a child seems to be mourning
I would like to share this flower with you
Hoping that you can find a place
To change the look on that face
It is not about what you don’t have
But what you are trying to find
The music in your heart still lives
It is just waiting for you to give
All you need is to SMILE
But this will cost you a MILE
Which is worth the try
You don’t have to cry
Just sing, dance and play
Then you will find a beautiful vase
In which that flower can live!

Children visit the animals

Over the period of 2 days the children from the previous homes we had been to arrived at UWEC for a tour of the animals and centre

Upon the arrival of our visitors, the children were given a tour around UWEC visiting all of the animals.  They appeared to really enjoy their trip and most of the children had never been to a wildlife park before.  The children were shown all the animals and given a talk about the importance of conservation at the centre.  The lions were very close up to the fence and some of the children were slightly wary of them.  Most of the children had never seen any of these animals before.

Peace who is the education officer for UWEC showed them around all of the animals and related all the animals to human families and feelings.  Of course the chimpanzees were included in this talk, where Peace started making noises that the chimpanzees responded to and came running over calling back!

The children were told by  Patrick from the orphanage that chimpanzees can be orphaned or abused just like humans can. Some of the children began asking questions about what do the chimpanzees do when they feel sad, angry or happy.  Peace showed them with her body language and voice which made the children laugh.

The first day the children were younger with a few older members of the home, who were in their late teens. The second day the children were mainly in their teenage years. We then looked forward to the afternoon where we were able to begin art work with the children.