Do Animals Know That They Will Die?

Moni the chimpanzee was still new to the Dutch zoo when she lost her baby. The keepers hadn’t even known that she was pregnant. Neither did Zoë Goldsborough, a graduate student who had spent months jotting down every social interaction that occurred among the chimps, from nine to five, four days a week, for a study on jealousy. One chilly midwinter morning, Goldsborough found Moni sitting by herself on a high tree stump in the center of her enclosure, cradling something in her arms. That she was by herself was not surprising: Moni had been struggling to get along with the zoo’s 14 other chimps. But when Goldsborough edged closer, she knew that something was wrong. Moni had a newborn, and it wasn’t moving.

Goldsborough raced downstairs to a room where the zookeepers were preparing food for the chimps, and told them what she’d seen. At first, they didn’t believe her. They said that Moni was probably just playing with some straw. After the keepers saw the baby with their own eyes, they entered the enclosure and tried to take it away from her. Moni wouldn’t part with it. They decided to wait and try again.

By this point, another female chimp named Tushi was lingering nearby. Tushi was one of Goldsborough’s favorites. A few years earlier, she’d achieved global fame for executing a planned attack on a drone that was recording the chimps for a documentary. Long before that, she’d had a miscarriage of her own. For Tushi, the sight of Moni and her baby may have brought back that memory, or even just its emotional contours. For the next two days, she stayed near Moni, who held the tiny carcass. Finally, in a tussle with the keepers, it fell from Moni’s grasp and Tushi snatched it up and refused to give it back. Moni grew extremely agitated. The keepers separated Tushi in a private room. Moni pounded at the door.

Leave a Comment