Animals Say Hello, but Do They Say Goodbye?

"Jane Goodall, the late primatologist, was known for her imitations of chimpanzee greetings. When she met with Prince Harry, in 2019, she approached him slowly, making panting noises through circular lips. She prompted him to pat her lightly on the head, then reached up for an embrace, making soft hooting sounds. During her career, Goodall observed chimps engaging in more than a thousand such greetings. They sometimes touched their lips together, breathed into one another's open mouths, or stood on two legs and hugged."

"Greetings are found across the animal kingdom. Dogs sniff each other's rears, African elephants swing their trunks, and songbirds peck at one another's feathers. Orcas face off in rows before rushing into a sort of whale mosh pit, in which they slap tails, squeak, and whistle. Greeting behaviors are universal enough that they are thought to be ancient, emerging before primate groups evolved. When a spectral bat wraps its wings around another bat in what looks like a hug, it seems to be communicating something"

Greeting behaviors occur widely across animal species, manifesting in diverse rituals such as dogs sniffing rears, elephants swinging trunks, songbirds pecking feathers, orcas lining up and squeaking, and bats wrapping wings in apparent hugs. Jane Goodall observed and imitated chimpanzee greetings throughout her career, recording over a thousand exchanges that included lip touching, open-mouth breathing, and embraces. Farewells were historically considered uniquely human, but notable chimpanzee embraces—such as Wounda's hug when released to a sanctuary—raise questions about goodbye-like behavior. A 2016 survey across ten wild-chimpanzee sites documented many greetings yet found no clear evidence of goodbye behaviors.

Read at The New Yorker