Amazing Photo of a Chimpanzee Funeral

The amazing photo below shows a group of Chimpanzees at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Centre in eastern Cameroon lined up solemnly near a fence after one of their fellow chimps died an is taken away.

Chimpanzees are normally very noisy creatures, but after the passing of one of their fellow chimps, an elderly female named Dorothy, the entire group rushed over to the fence and watched in silence as her body was buried. They sat there by the fence with their hands on each others shoulders as if mourning and consoling each other.

The photo was taken by Monica Szczupider, a worker at the rescue center. She said Dorothy the chimp was well into her thirties when she died of heart failure after being ill.

Szczupider said:

“This is a funeral shot. We were burying Dorothy. We brought her in the wheelbarrow to let the others see.

“It was unbelievably emotional. We were all struck. Even the employees, all of whom grew up as villagers potentially eating apes, before they were a delicacy, were emotional.

“I think every last one of us was silenced by their silence.”

R.I.P. Dorothy.

Photo and story: TheSun.co.uk