    19

    into

    wild tantrums, lashed about violently on the ground, and ran off

    screaming.  Finally, a worried Flo was forced to calm her son by

    offering him her breast.  Later, Flint developed even more aggressive

    techniques for ensuring his supply of mother's milk.  If Flo tried to

    shrug him off, Flint struck her with his fists, and punctuated the

    pummeling with sharp bites.

    At an age when other chimps have freed themselves from

    parental apron strings, Flint was still acting like a baby. Though he was

    a strapping young lad, and his mother was increasingly feeble, Flint

    insisted that his mama carry him everywhere.  If Flo stopped to rest

    and Flint was anxious to taste the fruit of the trees at their next

    destination, the hulking child would push, prod and whimper to get

    his mom moving again.  Then he'd climb on her back and enjoy the

    ride.  When shoves and whines didn't motivate his mother to pick him

    up and cart him where he wanted to go, Flint would occasionally give

    the exhausted lady a strong kick.  At night, Flint was old enough to

    build a sleeping nest of his own.  Instead, he insisted on climbing into

    bed with his mommy.

    Flint should have turned his attention from Flo to the other

    chimps his age, forging ties to the superorganism--the chimpanzee

    tribe--of which he was a part.  But he did not.  The consequence would

    be devastating.46

    Flint's mother died.  Theoretically, Flint's instincts should have

    urged him to survive.  But three weeks later, he went back to the spot

    where his mother had breathed her last and  curled up in a fetal ball.

    Within a few days, he too was dead.

    An autopsy revealed that there was nothing physically wrong

    with Flint: no infection, no disease, no handicap.47 In all probability, the

    youngster's death had been caused by the simian equivalent of that

    voice which tells humans going through a similar loss that there's

    nothing left to live for.  Flint had been cut loose from his single bond to

    the superorganism.  That separation had killed him.

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