14 DAY TRIAL // The public image of baboons may not be that of very sensitive and emotional animals, but nevertheless they sometimes are. University of Pennsylvania scientists have discovered that when baboons lose a close companion, they behave much like we do - they seek support from their friends.
Sometimes it's difficult to detect even the emotions of other people, so how could a scientist be confident that not a human being, but a baboon, feels something as complex as grief? Well, they don't actually adventure in saying such a thing.
But, nevertheless, they can say the following: When humans grieve the level of the stress hormones, called glucocorticoids, increases. When a baboon loses a close associate not only does he behave in a certain way, but his levels of the stress hormones increase as well.
Through friendly social contract and by expanding their social network they can diminish the psychological effects of the loss - and thus reduce the levels of glucocorticoids.
The study was conducted by post-doctoral researcher Anne Engh and biologist Dorothy Cheney, together with psychology Professor Robert Seyfarth. They have followed for 14 years a troop of more than 80 free-ranging baboons in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. "Our findings do not necessarily suggest that baboons experience grief like humans do, but they do offer evidence of the importance of social bonds amongst baboons," Engh said.