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Subscribe to RSSThis image won Readers Choice in The Week in Pictures the week of Aug. 21 - 28, 2008. This image was heart-wrenching for the editors, and from the strong response, I think for the readers as well. We were moved by this phenomenon of gorilla mourning, which we'd never seen before, and the moment captured by the photographer, where on first glance you wonder why the baby looks odd, and then you realize the actuality. I think as humans who have children, or who have parents, we can't help but empathize with the intensity of such a loss.
Friso Gentsch/EPA
Eleven-year-old gorilla female Gana carries her dead baby Claudio on her back as she mourns for him, at the zoo of Muenster, Germany, on August 21, 2008. Claudio died unpredictably for yet uncertain reasons. Gorilla parents mourn for clan members that pass away with the entire group. The keepers will allow her to overcome her grief, which is believed to happen when Gana puts the corpse aside.