In a world where we have forgotten how to stand with each other in times of grief, animals often show us how it’s done. While it’s monkeys we are talking about, let’s just say that’s pretty much where we evolved from.
BBC One’s new wildlife documentary ‘Spy in the Wild’ works on a concept where animal activities are tracked and recorded using spy cameras. In this particular preview, a robotic baby monkey with an inbuilt spy camera is put out in this colony of temper Langurs in Rajasthan. The baby garners major interest and all the langurs are seen getting friendly with her. Monkey family is known for trying to be friendly and how easily they accept this new member into the gang is commendable. In sharp contrast to humans who would make a ruckus of accepting anyone new into their community, this colony feels totally at home with the robot.
One even attempts to babysit and take care of her and that’s when she accidentally drops the baby. The robot does not move and it is presumed by the colony that death has occurred.
What happens as a result of this realization is extraordinaire. The whole colony slowly gathers around the ‘dead body’ and mourns the death as if one of their living, breathing babies has died. The langurs are seen comforting and consoling each other even though each of them is struck by an equal amount of grief.
The parents hug and pull away the kids who keep on trying to wake their robotic friend up for a very long while after the ‘death’. With this being the preview of the documentary, it definitely seems like this will go on to be a very interesting documentary.
