Reaction to allospecific death and to an unanimated gorilla infant in wild western gorillas: insights into death recognition and prolonged maternal carrying

Abstract

It is still unclear to what extent animals possess knowledge of death. Primates display a large variety and often contradictory behaviors toward conspecific corpses, particularly those of infants (e.g., prolonged carrying and care). This study reports on reactions in a wild, habituated western gorilla group (Gorilla gorilla, 11-13 individuals) in the Central African Republic to an unanimated conspecific infant, and to an allospecific corpse. Individuals' reactions were compared to their usual behavior using both continuous focal animal sampling and 10-min instantaneous scan sampling. In the first observation, an infant gorilla fell out of a tree and looked dead. The mother retrieved it and remained unusually close to another adult female, until the infant started to move again, almost 1 h later. Cases of infants regaining consciousness after almost-fatal accidents may act as positive reinforcement for continued carrying by mothers, which might be socially learned. In the second case, three immature gorillas reacted to a dead red river hog. For 20 min they stared at the corpse from tree branches above, while chest beating, defecating, and urinating several times. They showed fear and did not approach the corpse. These observations show that non-predatory species, such as gorillas, may be able to acquire and develop some knowledge about death even though they do not kill other vertebrates.

Keywords: Death consciousness; Prolong maternal carrying; Reaction to dead allospecifics; Thanatology; Western gorillas.