How do you help a mother mourn her baby when you don't share the same language?
This is the plight of Rockhampton's zookeepers as they nurse their beloved chimpanzee Samantha through the grief of a second still-born baby.
Vets made the decision to perform a caesarean section yesterday afternoon, but Samantha's male baby had already died.
Samantha shares 98.6 per cent of her DNA with humans, and a leading chimpanzee expert says the animals' responses to grief are almost identical.
Grief in chimpanzees
The CEO of the Jane Goodall Institute of Australia, James Forbes, said chimps often displayed a range of human emotions and had been known to grieve so intensely that it became fatal.
Mr Forbes recalled the death of the chimpanzee Flo – a matriarch of the chimp community at Gombe Stream National Park – who formed a large part of Jane Goodall's research in the 1960s and 70s.
"Her [Flo's] youngest infant at that time [of her death] was about nine years old … and he went into a deep depression," Mr Forbes said.
"It just goes to show how incredibly like us they are."
At Rockhampton Zoo, council and zoo staff are now rallying around Samantha to help her recover physically and emotionally after the stillbirth of her baby boy.
Mourning and recovery
At 37, Samantha is Rockhampton Zoo's second oldest chimpanzee.
If she doesn't have another baby, she will be the last of her blood line.
Rockhampton Councillor for Parks and Public Spaces Cherie Rutherford deemed Samantha's genetics "very, very important".
Cr Rutherford previously said the baby was "very, very important as well" and that Samantha was showing all the signs she was approaching labour.
"She was nesting. She was getting in the birthing position," she said.
But after two days, Samantha had not had a contraction.
"Vets and our experts all decided that it was probably best that we step in, and that's a decision that we never take lightly," Cr Rutherford said.
"The baby was delivered by caesarean section and unfortunately he was already deceased."
A 'difficult decision'
Cr Rutherford said vets made another "difficult decision" to remove the baby from the enclosure before Samantha woke from the anaesthetic.
"The staff and vets pondered over that for a very long time," she said.
"They were really worried that if they presented her baby deceased, she would become very, very distressed and, given that she's just had a caesarean, that was a risk."
Samantha delivered a stillborn baby after her first pregnancy in November 2019, but zoo staff believe the two episodes aren't linked.
"It's heartbreaking," Mr Forbes said.
"The Rockhampton community will be grieving, but also that chimp community.
Cr Rutherford said tests would be conducted to determine the cause of the stillbirth and to monitor Samantha's health.
The chimpanzee enclosure at Rockhampton Zoo will be shut off indefinitely as zoo staff work to aid her recovery.
