- A short 20 second video touched the hearts of thousands of Australians last weekend. The video shows a male koala grieving by holding the legs of a female koala lying motionless under a tree.
- Koala rescue workers say they have never seen a male koala mourn the death of its mate.
- It turns out that animals can also express feelings of sadness and mourning, as summarized by Barbara J King in her book
- Jane Goodall, the most respected primatologist, in 1972 Jane witnessed a young male chimpanzee named Flint who died one month after his mother Flo died because he was sad about his mother leaving him, Flint became depressed. He was on hunger strike and did not want to mingle with his flock.
A male koala was seen holding the leg of a female koala lying motionless under a tree. His head looked up for a moment, then immediately hugged his partner with great sadness.
The short 20-second video touched the hearts of thousands of Australians last weekend. But the heartbreaking story continues. People posted it on social media and now the video has spread and can be seen by netizens all over the world.
Initially, a koala rescue group in Southern Australia received a call from residents who found a male koala kneeling and hugging a dead female koala. When the officer was shown the video, he said he had never seen anything like it.
In parenting there is the term koala parenting . What this means is a parenting style that develops a close relationship between parents and children from birth. For example, as soon as the baby is born, it is immediately placed on the mother's chest to get warmth and breastfeed. Likewise, in early development, babies need to be held more often by their parents.
Koalas raise their young in a unique way. When a koala baby is born, its size is only about 2 cm and weighs about 1 gram. By instinct, the weak koala cub will crawl into its mother's pouch located on her stomach. He will safely stay there for 6 months.
A koala mother can at least hear the sound of a baby koala crying, even if it is not her own child. The cries of any baby koala will make any koala mother depressed.
"They have a strong innate response to a baby's cry, they will even hold the baby even if it is not their child when asking for help," said Kath Handasyde, an expert from the University of Melbourne, quoted from an article discussing great mothers in the animal world.
Jane Goodall, now 89 years old, is a highly respected primatologist and anthropologist. He has been researching chimpanzees for 60 years. In 1972, Jane witnessed a young male chimpanzee named Flint die one month after his mother Flo died. Because he was sad about his mother leaving him, Flint became depressed. He was on hunger strike and did not want to mingle with his flock.
Chimpanzee mothers are incredibly loving mothers. Jane Goodall observed Fifi, a chimpanzee mother who had seven children in 1960. When Fifi had a second child named Ferdin, Fifi let her first child named Faustino hang on her back.
The similarities between humans and chimpanzees are explained as follows. Humans and chimpanzees have about 98.6 percent similar DNA. Emotion processing patterns in chimpanzees are the same as humans. Not only because of complex sociality, but also because of the same brain structure.
Another behavior recorded in chimpanzees during mourning is dragging, or trying to wake a corpse. But in 2017, for the first time scientists observed another unique behavior. A chimpanzee cleans his friend's teeth, which are lying stiff with grass. Meanwhile his relatives were on the side watching.
Such post-death rituals are proof that humans are not the only creatures who care for dead relatives.
A book published in 2013 written by Barbara J King summarizes some of the behavior of mourning animals. Elephants are often an example of an animal that has emotions and grieves when it loses a relative. Elephants can cry, bury dead members of their herd, and caress and sniff the bones of relatives with their trunks.
But it's not just elephants or chimpanzees that can feel sadness. Dogs, cats, giraffes, crows, dolphins, even ducks also have the same behavior.
As quoted by BBC Earth , the anthropologist from the College of William and Mary, Virginia, America said, "We humans are not the only ones who have love or sadness - these emotions are spread across many animals."