Tool use for corpse cleaning in chimpanzees
Abstract
For the first time, chimpanzees have been observed using tools to clean the corpse of a deceased group member. A female chimpanzee sat down at the dead body of a young male, selected a firm stem of grass, and started to intently remove debris from his teeth. This report contributes novel behaviour to the chimpanzee’s ethogram, and highlights how crucial information for reconstructing the evolutionary origins of human mortuary practices may be missed by refraining from developing adequate observation techniques to capture non-human animals’ death responses.
Citation
van Leeuwen , E J C , Cronin , K A & Haun , D B M 2017 , ' Tool use for corpse cleaning in chimpanzees ' , Scientific Reports , vol. 7 , 44091 . https://doi.org/10.1038/srep44091
Publication
Scientific Reports
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2045-2322Type
Journal article
Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.