The heartbreaking moment that a gorilla grooms and tries to suckle his dead mother's corpse has been caught on camera for the first time.
Researchers from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the University of California Davis , Uppsala University, and the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature observed the behaviour in mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda.
In the footage, gorillas can be seen gathering around the corpses of a 35-year-old dominant adult male called Titus, and a 38-year-old dominant female called Tuck, who had died a few hours earlier.
The animals sat close to the corpses and stared at them, but also sniffed, poked, groomed and licked them.
Interestingly, the researchers noticed that gorillas that shared close social relationships with the deceased were the ones who spent the most time with the corpse.
For example, a young male who had a close relationship with Titus remained near the body for two days, and even sleep in the same nest as it.
Meanwhile, Tuck’s son groomed her corpse and even tried suckling from it, indicating his distress.
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As well as teaching us more about their behaviour, the researchers believe the footage could have important implications for gorilla conservation.
A statement explained: “Contacts between healthy individuals and infected corpses may be a major way through which diseases like Ebola, which have affected and killed thousands of gorillas in Central Africa, spread among gorillas.”
