Why Primate Mothers Keep Their Dead Chldren with Them for Months

Some primate species may express grief over the death of their infant by carrying the corpse with them, sometimes for months, according to a new UCL-led study — with implications for our understanding of how non-human animals experience emotion.

Published on September 15, 2021, in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers compiled data from anecdotes reported in 126 publications on primate behavior. In the largest study of its kind, researchers undertook the most extensive and rigorous quantitative analysis to date of a behavior known as “infant corpse carrying” in primate mothers, looking at 409 cases across 50 species.