Responses of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) to deceased infants - Primates Studying nonhuman primates’ responses to the death of conspecifics has gained growing interest in comparative thanatology providing wider evolutionary context for our understanding of human responses ...

New paper by Munyawera et al. (2025) analyzes 141 infant deaths over 21.7 years of observation in mountain gorillas.60.5% of mothers engage in infant corpse carrying (ICC), with an average duration of 4.9 days.
Link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Fig. 1 Locomotor adjustments by the mother during corpse-carrying. a) Irene moving bipedally on a branch with the corpse; b) Fire (in rigor mortis), draped across a branch, while Irene self-grooms; c) Fire left on the branch, while Irene is foraging

Delval et al. report a primiparous capuchin mother carrying and caring for her dead infant, maintaining contact most of the time while other group members observed, suggesting coping strategies in response to the loss. Paper here: doi.org/10.1007/s103...

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8 camera trap stills depicting chimpanzees carrying dead infants in several states of decomposition.

Bersacola et al. used camera traps to document infant corpse carrying (ICC) in multiple unhabituated chimpanzee populations, with carrying durations up to 28 days. Showing camera traps as a great tool for studying rare behaviors: doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

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