Two separate studies in Scotland revealed that chimpanzees possess highly developed awareness of death and deal with the death of loved ones in a similar way to humans.

Researchers in Scotland captured a video of a group of chimpanzees, who started grooming an elderly female chimp named Pansy during her days leading up to her death. They also started staying with her at nights.

After the death of Pansy, her daughter stayed near her dead body for the whole night. All the members of the group became quieter for several days afterwards. They also avoided the place where Pansy had died.

Speaking on the reaction of Pansy’s daughter, social-behavior expert Jim Anderson said, "That evening, her daughter came back and stayed with her mother all night long. She was trying to sleep, but was clearly very disturbed."

In a separate study, researchers captured videos of two chimp mothers who carried the mummified remains of their offspring for weeks after the infants had died, which proves that there is a powerful bond between chimp mothers and their infants.

In the animal kingdom, chimpanzees are the closet relatives of human beings as they share 98.5 per cent of their DNA with humans.