title: Tending a dying adult in a wild multi-level primate society.
abstract: Responses of nonhuman species to dying and dead conspecifics range from hard-wired, fixed-action patterns - as in social insects - to varied, flexible behaviors with cognitive and emotional correlates - as in some larger-brained mammals [1,2]. Comparative thanatology addresses issues that include empathy, compassion, and conceptual understanding of death across species [1-3]. Several aspects of how great apes react to illness, injury and death of others recall human behavior in comparable situations [1-5]. However, the extent to which more distantly related primates share these responses is largely unknown. Here, we describe behaviors shown toward a dying adult female in wild Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) [6] and argue that empathy and compassion surrounding death extend beyond humans and their closest evolutionary relatives.
authors.affiliation: Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, Shaanxi Institute of Zoology, Shaanxi Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, Shaanxi Institute of Zoology, Shaanxi Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710032, China; Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, and College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China. Electronic address: baoguoli@nwu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Bao-Guo
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016673:Colobinae / Q000523:psychology*; D003643:Death; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior