Never-Seen-Before Behavior Of Chimp Brushing Dead Son’s Teeth

Biologists have observed a chimp using a tool to clean the teeth of a deceased group member in an unusually intimate manner (video below). This not only gives academics more information about apes’ emotional intelligence, but it may also shed light on the evolutionary origins of humans’ death rituals.

Scientists from Scotland’s University of St Andrews saw the behavior for the first time at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust in Zambia. They stood there as Noel, a wild-born mother chimp, discovered the body of her adopted son Thomas. Their research, published in Nature Scientific Reports, describes how she approaches him and sits beside his head practically quickly after discovering the dead. She then takes a harsh grass blade from the ground, opens Thomas’ mouth, and pretends to brush his teeth with it.

The researchers remark that during their 8,000 hours of monitoring, they did not observe any of the chimps at Chimfunshi performing tool-assisted teeth cleaning.

“Death responses constitute essential aspects of human civilization,” the study authors write, “with tremendous variability in mortuary ceremonies documented throughout civilizations.” “We give a valid case of distinct non-human animal behavior that may throw light on the evolution of traits previously thought to be uniquely human.”

However, Professor Klaus Zuberbuehler, who was not engaged in the study, is wary of drawing too many conclusions. It’s likely that the chimp is just being challenged by the untimely death of a group member.

“We simply do not know if and how much chimps understand about death,” Thibaud Gruber of the University of Geneva told New Scientist. In other words, it’s unclear if this is “corpse cleaning” or “social cleaning.” But it surely provides behavioral descriptions of unique behavior shown by chimps when one of their kind dies.”