Animal Mourning: The Case Of Gorillas
Many cases of animal mourning have been observed, but even so, we are always surprised to learn of a new testimony that shows how other animals besides us experience the death of individuals of the same species, which gave rise to one of the most dramatic cases known in the animal Kingdom.
I mourn in gorillas
In this case, the discovery of another report of animal grief occurred in central Africa: researchers from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo recorded three different deaths of gorillas and published their results in a prestigious scientific journal.
The team was formed by members of the University of Uppsala, the University of California Davis and the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation, along with the Dian Fossey foundation.
Mourning was recorded in animals of two species of gorillas : on the one hand, two of the deaths occurred in the species mountain gorilla, a primate of which only a thousand individuals still live freely in the wild. The third case was studied in the Grauer Gorilla, specifically in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park.
In the three cases of animal mourning, the gorillas had the same behavior: the primates sat beside the body and watched it for a while. In many cases, they sniffed, touched, stroked or licked.
The researchers suspected that the gorillas that interacted most with the corpses and spent the most time with them would be those who had shared a social group with the deceased animal, particularly those who maintained close relationships with the individual.
And that’s how it happened in the case of the two mountain gorillas. The case of a young gorilla who had a very close relationship with one of the deceased males is especially impressive : he spent two days near Titus’ body, including sleeping beside him.
Another case of animal grief is that of Tuck, whose mother died. He remained at her side as he caressed her and even tried to suckle, despite being weaned, a very unusual behavior.
Animal mourning: Titus, the gorilla king
However, this last animal known as Titus was not just any animal: a direct descendant of Uncle Bert, Titus is one of the protagonists of Gorilla Mountain , the famous book by primatologist Dian Fossey.
Born in 1974, this impressive gorilla was born with a respiratory problem, making Dian doubt his survival during observations.
However, she was wrong: Titus managed to be one of the best-known animals the primatologist studied and, after migrating from a group, Titus formed a small coalition with other males that spent eight years without any females, something curious in one species. led by a male, as opposed to the bonobo.
Interestingly, Titus’ death happened due to a fight with his son Rano. Much younger, he returned to the group to face the legendary gorilla. A fight that weakened and caused enough injuries to cause his death in 2009, when this curious behavior about animal mourning was observed and published.
