The POWER of Photography CASE STUDY: Jane Goodall Perhaps one of the most well-known descriptions of the deep grief that animals feel when they lose a loved one is Jane Goodall’s observations of Flint, a young chimpanzee who withdrew from his group, stopped eating, and died of a broken heart soon after the death of his mother, Flo. Here is Goodall’s description from her book ‘Through a Window’:”Never shall I forget watching as, three days after Flo’s death, Flint climbed slowly into a tall tree near the stream. He walked along one of the branches, then stopped and stood motionless, staring down at an empty nest. After about two minutes he turned away and, with the movements of an old man, climbed down, walked a few steps, then lay, wide eyes staring ahead. The nest was one which he and Flo had shared a short while before Flo died. . . . in the presence of his big brother [Figan], [Flint] had seemed to shake off a little of his depression. But then he suddenly left the group and raced back to the place where Flo had died and there sank into ever deeper depression. . . . Flint became increasingly lethargic, refused food and, with his immune system thus weakened, fell sick. The last time I saw him alive, he was hollow-eyed, gaunt and utterly depressed, huddled in the vegetation close to where Flo had died. . . . the last short journey he made, pausing to rest every few feet, was to the very place where Flo’s body had lain. There he stayed for several hours, sometimes staring and staring into the water. He struggled on a little further, then curled up- and never moved again.” There’s no doubt Flint was grieving and feeling totally lost in the world. Life was no longer worth living. We really don’t need more data to know other animals grieve and mourn the loss of family and friends too.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Apr 2014 21:08:21 +0000
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