Animal Funerals, from Dorothy the Chimp to Yellow-billed Magpies
Dorothy’s mother was killed by hunters. They then sold her to an
amusement park in Cameroon where she was chained to the ground
and taught to drink beer and smoke cigarettes for noisy crowds.
After a rollercoaster life, Dorothy died at a chimpanzee rescue
center in Cameroon. This photo, showing her chimp family observe
the burial, went viral on the internet and raised the question,
can animals really exhibit funeral behavior?  Poor diet and lack
of exercise made Dorothy obese. In May of 2000 she was brought
to Cameroon’s Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center and
rehabilitated. She became a favorite at the center and even
mothered a child of her own. But in September of 2008 she died
of congestive heart failure. The management let her chimpanzee
family witness the burial. “Some chimps displayed aggression
while others barked in frustration,” a worker who photographed
the event later explained. “But perhaps the most stunning
reaction was a recurr