I’m not surprised. Both the BBC and Discover Magazine are reporting accounts of how chimpanzees deal with deaths of the old (Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park in Stirlingshire, Scotland) and the young (Bossou, Guinea).
I am, of course, glad that this behavior is being documented. But I’m a bit dismayed that it is being reported as news. Of course, chimpanzees grieve. They’re only human, no? Well, I suppose that’s the problem. We mustn’t anthropomorphize. And so we have to study and verify.
Still, I have this vague memory of having read that not so long ago doctors believed that neonates had no sense of pain. And so surgeons didn’t use anesthesia when operating on them. Did the little ones not scream?
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