More than a dozen chimpanzees stand in silence as body of their own is wheeled by
- From: Daily Mail
- October 29, 2009
UNITED in what appears to be deep and profound grief, more than a dozen chimpanzees stand in silence as the body of one of their own is wheeled past.
This extraordinary scene took place at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Centre inCameroon, west Africa, when a chimp named Dorothy, who was in her late 40s, died of heart failure.
Her death seemed to have left her fellow chimpanzees stricken by sorrow.
As they wrapped their arms around each other in a gesture of solidarity, Dorothy's keeper gently settled her into the wheelbarrow which carried her to her final resting place - but not before a final affectionate stroke of her forehead.
Villagers serve as "care-givers'' to the chimps, all orphans whose mothers were killed in the illegal bushmeat trade.
Until recently, describing scenes such as this in terms of human emotions such as "grief'' would have been dismissed by scientists as naive anthropomorphising.