Chimpanzees seen comforting dying chimp (very touching)

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In a safari park in Scotland a group of chimpanzees have been filmed comforting another chimpanzee named Panzi who was old, ill and dying. The safari staff gave the chimp pain killers so ensure she died painlessly and let her stay with the other chimps. What they found was fascinating and also very moving, they cared for her and comforted her, they groomed their dying friend and would stay by her side. When Panzi finally died the other chimpanzees showed obvious signs of grief, they acted very subdued and would be very quiet and sometimes they didn't want to eat and would be clearly distressed for weeks following her death.
Here is the video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL86Ap9zSmM[/youtube]

Findings like this just prove how similar humans are to the rest of the animal kingdom and vice versa. Grief has also been observed in other pack animals including elephants and canines. Elephants are known to stand around their dead pack member quietly. Also if dogs lose their owners they become distressed and there are noticable changes in their behaviour for some time following their owner's death indicating grief for example loss of appetite.
Us humans seem to have this arrogance and think of many things as being "only human" like deep thought and emotion and are genuinely surprised when an animal like a chimp does something human like care of a dying relative or use tools, but I was not surprised by this at all.

hey creationists, this is one of those "blow a hole in your theory" moments. so its official i have now seen apes do every thing that people do.

Chimps are very similar to humans, and share many advanced traits, but they lack some as well. For example, if you put a nut under one of three cups, shuffle them, and then point to the one with the nut, the chimp will choose at random. They do not expect the group cooperation that we do. Two humans meet on the street somewhere, they exchange greetings, maybe help one another with something. Two chimps happen upon one another, they first struggle for dominance.

Dogs, however, have been working with humans for about 15,000 years. Point to an object and a dog will go to examine it - this is most evident in herding dogs, like my border collie.

Yeah but...This is also why dogs depend on us. =/ And why you can't interact with them as you would a human. <.<

And regarding the chimps, i'll not tell you everything about one video i saw about in of my classes, a young chimp was dying (and eventually died), and his mom still cared for it even after death (like keeping the flies away from its body).

You confuse "Planet Of The Apes" with reality. It happens.

Last edited by monsterland on 27 Apr 2010, 10:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

yes please tell me gods rational for chimps and apes acting like humans. id love to hear it

If I was God, and I was creating a multitude of living creatures, I'd go the following route...

1) define the basic rules of a natural selection process, chemical interactions, gravity, everything
2) press the start button and watch evolution unfold
3) marvel at the end result

Apes being similar to humans would be a natural outcome of this process.

so your saying god didnt create everything but he did create evolution?

I allow that God created the physical laws by which the Universe operates, and allowed procedural content generation to take place. From time to time, he took hand in correcting the course (such as by killing the dinosaurs).

I don't believe that people were created out of nowhere, because we share the majority of DNA with even mice. We're all clearly result of procedural content generation, highly advanced biological robots, but yes, humans are special, because we're the end result, and we're truly self-aware.

And yes I'm aware that this belongs to a different forum but I'm only human and people keep baiting me with religious and political activism all over this place.

you dont think these chimps are self aware?

Every animal is self-aware to a degree. But humans are vastly more advanced in that regard than any other living creature on Earth. The evidence of that is axiomic and overwhelming.

If you want to prove that chimps are as advanced as humans, the burden of proof is on you. And like I said, remember that the movie "Planet of the Apes" is actually "fiction", as opposed to "reference material"

relly depends on what you consider advancment. chimp society is almost a utopia. humans is in chaos almost every day

It's only Tuesday. A bit too early in the week to be drunk, don't you think

ah way to take the low road. because i have my own opinion thats different from yours i must be drunk.

Friend, you took the low road 2 posts back when you called the chimp society a utopia. Since I don't even know where to start with that grand statement, I gave you benefit of the doubt and played it off as byproduct of inebriation.

That's so sweet but sad at the same time.

I remember watching a documentary showing a similar incident. One ape was dying and the other ape held it in its arms until it died. It's not anything new but still, it is interesting to observe apes and watch them do things merely similar to humans. They've even been known to adopt babies!