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Shaved gorilla9/1/2023 ![]() The calm interest they showed in the body of the unknown silverback was unexpected and raises new questions about how gorillas perceive death. They tend to avoid others who aren’t part of their social group, and if they do interact, it can get aggressive. ![]() Researchers have rarely observed this type of behavior even in close social groups, so they were especially surprised to see it around a gorilla not part of the troop. ![]() And as they parted, we saw this huge silverback lying on his stomach." We thought, 'What is going on?' The whole group was together looking at something. "At first we didn't know what it was," says Amy Porter, one of the lead researchers. Researchers with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, which has been studying gorillas for more than 50 years, had been shadowing Chimanuka, the head of a gorilla troop in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kahuzi-Biega National Park, in 2016, when the strange scene unfolded. Some, especially the younger gorillas, placed a hand on the body, grooming it and licking it or their own fingers.Ĭhimanuka's family didn't know the dead gorilla, but they seemed to slowly take more interest in him. At first the Grauer’s gorillas’ displays were subtle as they quietly gathered around the dead silverback, staring, touching, and poking.
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