De Marco Arianna, Cozzolino Roberto, Thierry Bernard
Fondazione Ethoikos, Radicondoli, Italy.
Parco Faunistico di Piano dell'Abatino, via Capofarfa 50, 02030, Poggio San Lorenzo, Italy.
Primates. 2018 Jan;59(1):55-59. doi: 10.1007/s10329-017-0633-8. Epub 2017 Sep 20.
Observations of animals' responses to dying or dead companions raise questions about their awareness of states of helplessness or death of other individuals. In this context, we report the case of a female Tonkean macaque (Macaca tonkeana) that transported the body of her dead infant for 25 days and cannibalized its mummified parts. The mother appeared agitated in the first 2 days after the birth. She then took care of her infant's corpse, which progressively dried and became mummified. In a third stage, the mother continued to transport the corpse as it started disintegrating, and she gnawed and consumed some parts of the remains. Our observations suggest that mummification of the body favored persistence of maternal behaviors by preserving the body's shape. The female gradually proceeded from strong attachment to the infant's body to decreased attachment, then finally full abandonment of the remains.
对动物对濒死或死亡同伴的反应的观察引发了关于它们对其他个体无助或死亡状态的认知的问题。在此背景下，我们报告了一只雌性托氏猕猴（Macaca tonkeana）的案例，它搬运死去幼崽的尸体长达25天，并啃食了其木乃伊化的部分。母亲在幼崽出生后的头两天显得很激动。然后她照顾着幼崽的尸体，尸体逐渐变干并成为木乃伊。在第三个阶段，随着尸体开始分解，母亲继续搬运，并且啃咬并吃掉了残骸的一些部分。我们的观察表明，尸体的木乃伊化通过保留身体形状有利于母性行为的持续。雌性逐渐从对幼崽尸体的强烈依恋转变为依恋减少，最终完全抛弃了残骸。
