n=2: Primate infant death

Watch this film, “Jokro: The death of an infant chimpanzee,” about what happens to the infant’s corpse. The film moved me, both scientifically and emotionally. Having witnessed a similar incident on Yakushima, I am very curious about the psychological motivation behind the mothers’ behavior.

Tetsuro Matsuzawa, the researcher at Bossou who made the film, also wrote up a summary of the events in Pan Africa News. This short report details some of the other interesting incidents involving the corpse, such as its use by the alpha male in a charging display.

The film suggests what is both exciting and frustrating about the n = 1 case in field work. You have before you an unusual phenomena that may push your research in a new direction, yet you only have one datum that is easily dismissed as anecdotal.^* How do we even hypothesize about what the chimpanzees think of the dead infant?

^*Literally, ‘things unpublished,’ or should that be ‘things unpublishable?’