Why do some chimpanzee mothers carry their dead infants for months?
Chimpanzee and bonobo mothers sometimes continue to carry their infants after they have died, a behavior known as infant corpse carrying (ICC). It is widely documented, and many explanations have been proposed, but few have been quantitatively tested.
Chimpanzee and bonobo mothers sometimes continue to carry their dead infants after death, a behavior known as infant corpse carrying (ICC). New research from the University of Oxford suggests that this behavior is primarily driven by the strong bond between mothers and their offspring. By analyzing data from 83 published cases across 15 different sites, researchers found that mothers carried their dead infants for an average of 11 days, with durations ranging from just 30 minutes to 126 days.
Older infants, those who died from disease, and sites with longer intervals between births were more likely to have longer periods of ICC. The cause of an infant's death proved to be the most consistent predictor for longer ICC durations, suggesting that chimpanzees may not recognize death as final. The findings provide insight into the evolutionary origins of human responses to death and challenge the assumption that mothers need to understand death as irreversible to carry their dead infants for extended periods.
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