Mummified infant baboon found in The Crags
Here at The Crags Vet Clinic we frequently receive phone calls from the local wildlife authorities. Our joined experience with wildlife health, veterinary research, rescue and rehabilitation dates back to 1999, and at least on my part, it is by far the most favorite part of my work!
Because of that, we did not even think much about the call from Tsitsikamma National Park last Tuesday about a misshapen primate remains in need of autopsy. Working with habituated research and tourist troops/groups of Primates we had a protocol of autopsying every remains found in the forest. ID was one reason (in case of habituated Primates the individual more than species ID), reason of death another important fact to establish. But then newspapers started calling, asking about Thokoloshe/alien/hybrid found in Tsitsikamma…
The remains looked quite creepy, that is true, but not nearly as creepy as the half decomposed remains of an adult chimp, which look so disturbingly human. It was a newborn female baboon, with umbilical cord still attached to her body. The strangeness of her look came from a combination of few facts: her skull was crushed and teeth de-lined. Teeth looked abnormally big, because all the soft tissue of gums had already decomposed, exposing the parts which would be hidden under gums in a live baboon. Finally, the middle section of the body was twisted and stretched far beyond normal length. How did that happen, some people asked? Well, just have a look at the link to this story from Kruger National Park, which I found on the internet. It is easy to see how the soft body of an infant (some 90% made of water) can be stretched during weeks of being carried in this manner…
http://www.wildlife-pictures-online.com/baboonmother.html
Why carry the dead infant, and sometimes for over a month, you may ask? Well, many primate mothers do. They seem to understand that baby is dead. The chimp mothers, for example, usually carry unconscious, but still breathing infant on their chest, but when it dies they transfer it to their backs. Baboons often carry dead babies across their lower back, stretched over the base of the tail – just like you can see on the little photo relation from Kruger National Park. Not every Primate mother that loses her little infant would carry the remains. Some discard the body within minutes/hours after death. Others do not seem to be able to say good bye for much longer, and I have seen infants mummified beyond recognition, still carried around by their mothers or siblings. It is really sad to see, because they do not just carry and defend these little bodies, but they also groom them and chase the flies away, it is heartbreaking to watch.
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Mountain Gorilla female Ikerezi carrying the body of her new born son, who died during 2010 respiratory outbreak in Virunga Mountains of Rwanda.To make story even sadder, outbreak was caused by the human virus, brought to Gorillas by the careless visitors.
Source: The Crags Vet Clinic