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IN THE Central African Republic, a female western lowland gorilla runs through a cloud of butterflies. She capers, if a gorilla can be said to caper. The other gorillas in her group carry on feeding, ignoring her.
It is in stark contrast to the week before: the capering gorilla, named Malui, had given birth to a stillborn fetus. It would have been Malui鈥檚 fourth offspring, and Makumba, the silverback鈥檚, thirteenth. 鈥淢alui tried to revive the baby and even tried to get it to suckle,鈥� says wildlife photographer Anup Shah, who was watching the animals at the Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve. What happened next was unusual. Malui鈥檚 daughter, Mosoko, started grooming her. 鈥淪ince grooming is rare, it probably signifies something profound,鈥� says Shah. 鈥淲as the daughter telling her mother that she understood her grief?鈥�
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It鈥檚 not easy to interpret human behaviour in such circumstances, let alone that of other animals. But behaviours associated with grief in humans have been seen in animals such as dolphins and, indeed, gorillas. Malui carried the stillborn baby on her back, finally abandoning the body some 30 hours after giving birth.
The next week, Shah shot the butterfly picture. 鈥淢alui was thoroughly enjoying herself,鈥� he says 鈥� and she seemed to have put the loss of the baby behind her. 鈥淚 did not see any other instances of deep emotions in these gorillas,鈥� says Shah. 鈥淢y theory is that gorillas reserve deep emotions for extreme situations.鈥�