Laurence Dollimore
A CHIMPANZEE has finally ‘let go of her pain’ after releasing the body of her dead baby after cradling it for seven months.
Natalia, who resides in the Bioparc Valencia centre, was heartbroken when her baby died a few days after being born in February.
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The 21-year-old chimp spent the next seven months ‘in mourning’, keeping the body with her at all times and repeatedly kissing its head, her keepers said (one such moment pictured above).
One told news agency EFE: “The mourning came to an end in a completely natural way.”
Bioparc decided not to intervene in the mother’s grieving and to let her go through the process as she would do in the wild.
Her caretaker Ana Bro, said Natalia ‘looked after, groomed and took her baby everywhere; she only left it at certain times, perhaps to feed herself, but she always had it by her side until she decided to leave it.’
Regarding whether she will be able to reproduce again, the caretaker has emphasised that she has to ‘study her case carefully’ because Natalia is under observation ‘due to the volume of her breasts, since when it came to feeding the baby it was not adequate.’
