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VERSION:2.0
PRODID:icalendar-ruby
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260421T133054Z
UID:https://www.ab.mpg.de/events/43626/2736
DTSTART:20260414T083000Z
DTEND:20260414T093000Z
CLASS:PUBLIC
CREATED:20251024T120122Z
DESCRIPTION: When the Virginia opossum feels threatened\, she becomes paral
 ysed\, her body temperature drops\, her breathing and heart rate are reduc
 ed to a minimum\, her tongue turns blue\, and her glands simulate the smel
 l of rot. Despite her convincing corpse disguise\, the opossum is paying c
 lose attention to her surroundings\, ready to swing back into action as so
 on as the coast is clear. Not unlike the cat in Schrödinger’s famous pa
 radox\, the opossum is dead and alive at the same time. In this talk\, I w
 ill argue that the opossum has a lot to teach us about other species’ co
 ncept of death. I will also explore what we can learn about animals’ per
 ception of mortality from ants who attend their own ‘funeral’\, chimpa
 nzees who clean the teeth of corpses\, dogs who snack on their caretakers\
 , elephants obsessed with collecting ivory\, and whales who carry their de
 ad for weeks. Throughout history\, human beings have thought of themselves
  as the only animals with a notion of mortality. In this talk\, I will arg
 ue that this view is a result of our anthropocentric biases and that philo
 sophical reflection on the latest evidence from comparative thanatology ca
 n shed light on the notion that\, far from being uniquely human\, the conc
 ept of death is likely widespread in nature.\nSpeaker: Susana Monsó 
LAST-MODIFIED:20260306T100822Z
LOCATION:Bückle St. 5a\, 78467 Konstanz\, Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bückl
 estrasse + Online
ORGANIZER;CN=Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior:mailto:zgoldsborough@a
 b.mpg.de
SUMMARY:Institute Seminar by Susana Monsó : Do animals understand death
URL;VALUE=URI:https://www.ab.mpg.de/events/43626/2736
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