We're Not Alone

Got this article from a friend in Australia. Some interesting information on the reactions of other members of the animal kingdom to death:

Chimpanzees, as reported in next month's issue of National Geographic, and the closely related bonobos maintain complex societies, largely held together by sex and grooming.

They have often been seen apparently grieving for family and tribe members by entering a period of mourning after a death and showing subdued emotions and behaviour.

Such complex emotions may not even be unique to primates or even mammals.

This month University of Colorado ethologist Dr Marc Bekoff reported that magpies appeared to grieve for the dead and carry out a type of funeral ritual.

In one instance, four magpies in turn approached a comrade's corpse.

Two birds then flew off to return with a piece of grass, which they laid by the corpse. The birds then stood vigil.

Here's a portion of my comment in response:

I'm also willing to credit the idea that animals have much more intense and active emotional lives than we are willing to admit. Just watching my own cats over the years, as they had spats, wouldn't speak to each other, made up, developed crushes, and wanted reassurance -- and their reactions when the matriarch died of a stroke one morning (they seemed bewildered, and were very quiet and withdrawn) -- has reinforced that idea. It would be arrogant in the extreme to suppose that something as closely related to us as chimpanzees don't feel things in much the same way we do. In fact -- and this just occurred to me -- given the increasing evidence of same-sex bonding throughout the animal kingdom, can anyone really suppose there's no emotional component to that (or pair-bonding in general, of course), however bare-bones it might be?

Food for thought.