Astounding Facts About Primates that Never Cease to Amaze

17. Mother chimpanzees often develop lifelong relationships with their offspring.
Like humans, mother chimpanzees spend significant amounts of time and resources raising their offspring into healthy adults. Primatologists have documented strong relationships between mothers and their adult son chimpanzees. Nevertheless, only recently they discovered that these relationships were considered the norm rather than a heartwarming aberration. With chimpanzees, the females find a new group to mate into when they have reached maturity. Thus, it makes sense that mothers and sons stay close. In fact, some mother and son bonds are more like best friend relationships! That’s not all, however. Though chimps can be seen as friendly and lighthearted, they can also band together when support is needed.

Much like humans, primates tend to give birth to one infant at a time rather than the large litter common to other species. This allows mothers to focus on their one infant the way human mothers do. They provide round-the-clock care for an entire year. The mothers also nurse their offspring for up to five years! In one chimpanzee’s case of a stillborn pregnancy, her community offered her their hands to hold and sat around her for comfort. This physical display of grief proves chimps, at least in captivity, can console each other. They provide affection through intense emotional times.