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Friday, August 22, 2008

Allow Me to Ruin Your Day

posted by on August 22 at 11:32 AM

One of the saddest stories of the week (but not as traumatizing as Allison’s):

BERLIN - A gorilla at a zoo in the German city of Muenster is refusing to let go of her dead baby’s body several days after it died of unknown causes.

Allwetter Zoo spokeswoman Ilona Zuehlke says the 3-month-old male baby died on Saturday but its 11-year-old mother continues to carry its body around. Zuehlke says such behavior is not uncommon to gorillas.

Zuehlke says the mother “is mourning and must say goodbye.” The mother gorilla is named Gana.

I had no idea gorillas did that. The rest of the story, and a photo, are here.

Thanks to tipster Gurldoggie.

RSS icon Comments

1

GORILLAS. DESTROY ALL MISPLACED APOSTROPHE'S!!!!!

Posted by Walrus-Lord | August 22, 2008 11:37 AM
2

I don't get it. If I were a mom, I wouldn't give a shit about my baby. How do you? It's just a stupid baby. It's not like you can't get another one.

Posted by someone | August 22, 2008 11:44 AM
3

I remember reading a Harper and Row book, back when I was a kid, on gorillas, and they mentioned this behavior.

So it's not too surprising, if they mentioned it in a kid's book (they said she was "sad") that people have known about this for years.

Posted by Will in Seattle | August 22, 2008 11:48 AM
4

Nice. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go jump off the Chain of Rocks Bridge.

Posted by Mike in MO | August 22, 2008 11:53 AM
5

Thanks for posting that. I couldn't bear to put it on my own blog and just had to share it with someone. I know it's hard for some sociopathic Sloggers, like @2, to understand, but some of us on the internets are actually caring human beings who feel both compassion and sorrow when we witness something so deeply sad like the death of a child, human or not.

To get myself past it, I checked out these photos. Way way happier. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23679187

Posted by Gurldoggie | August 22, 2008 11:57 AM
6

How is this any worse than injecting a corpse with embalming fluid, and then having friends and family parade by for one last view?

Posted by Mahtli69 | August 22, 2008 11:57 AM
7

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." Albert Einstein

Posted by Vince | August 22, 2008 12:06 PM
8

@5

If you ate your feelings you could save big.

Posted by i hate challenge day club USA | August 22, 2008 12:12 PM
9

This sort of behavior's been documented for years in different great apes. A chimp infant died at a sanctuary and the chimps refused to allow the caretakers to take the body away for days as the mother carried it around. AND chimps have been recorded making spears to kill and eat bush babies with.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/apegenius/

Watch your back, humans, the apes are upon us.

Posted by Jessica | August 22, 2008 12:16 PM
10

We've had humans keep dead relatives in their houses for years sometimes.

Heck, we've event commented on it in SLOG posts over the years.

Posted by Will in Seattle | August 22, 2008 12:19 PM
11
Posted by NapoleonXIV | August 22, 2008 12:19 PM
12
Posted by NapoleonXIV | August 22, 2008 12:21 PM
13

This is a sad story, but I don't get why this is surprising. The mother is mourning, and can't let go yet of the only reminder of her child that she has. Humans do the same thing, just in a different way. And when you're talking great apes, it's not anthropomorphizing to describe things in these terms. Aside from a relative lack of abstract thought and language, great apes are pretty much people. Or people are great apes, if you prefer.

Posted by Cascadian | August 22, 2008 12:33 PM
14

Maybe the gorilla is Christian fundamentalist and believes the corpse to be a person until it disintegrates or some such nonsense.

Posted by kinaidos | August 22, 2008 12:34 PM
15

@12 should have read: Chimp eating Bush baby....

Posted by NapoleonXIV | August 22, 2008 12:53 PM
16

Wha - ? An 11 year-old gorilla can reproduce?

Sure puts that Texas Mormon cult thing in a whole new light...

Posted by I'm My Own Grandpa | August 22, 2008 4:10 PM
17

@6,

Or propping it up in a corner in the living room.

Posted by keshmeshi | August 22, 2008 6:27 PM

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