Elephants may pay homage to the bones of dead relatives in their home ranges, a study of the creatures’ responses to skulls and ivory suggests. Humans apart, only a few animals show any interest in their own dead. Chimpanzees show prolonged and complex behaviours towards a dead social partner – but abandon them once the carcass starts decomposing. But lions, for example, might sniff or lick a dead member of its own species before proceeding to devour the body.African elephants have been observed to become highly agitated when they come across the bodies of their own, and they have been seen to pay great attention to the skull and ivory of long-dead elephants. However, this interest had not been tested experimentally.Now research from a team in the UK and Kenya has demonstrated that African elephants pay a higher level of interest to elephant skulls compared with those of other animals and ivory compared to wood.

However, the team could not corroborate stories that elephants specifically visit the bones of dead relatives. The elephant families in their study were unable to pick out the skull of their dead matriarch from other families’ dead matriarchs.“But their interest in the ivory and skulls of their own species means that they would be highly likely to visit the bones of relatives who die within their home range,” writes the team, lead by Karen McComb at the University of Sussex, UK.

View: Full Article | Source: New Scientist

The behavior of animals toward their mates is the same as humans. Ask any farmer or person living in the rural areas of our country .They know this. I remember years back hitting a raccoon with my car. A half hour later I went back the same way, and its mate was with the body on the road trying to move it. This made me feel sorry though the killing was accidental.

Any way I think animals grieve just as people do and some times more so.

I always did like elephants. =D




I'd beleive that too. I bet farmers would know more about animals than scientists, well to a certain extent. I beleive that sometimes normal people that grew up around certain things can give you better answers than any science can. =P

this is pretty cool!!!

Aw....

I know cats do. I once saw a cat react to the body of a dead cat that was ran over, and he stopped and looked shocked, then sad. Maybe it’s just some kind of an instinct or a response to a warning sign, but I felt it was really sad and shocked.

Another time, I saw a cat trapped underneath a moving car, until it managed to get away. It was really scared, and started rubbing my long coat for comfort, cause I stopped to make sure it was ok. Then, I noticed another cat that came near us as well and looked at me and the other scared cat, and I felt that he knew what was going on and that he was worried for its friend. He set very near us until the scared cat calmed down and then they went away.

Am I thinking too much as a human here while cats think differently? I don’t think so. And I believe that they do mourn their dead.

How can you tell if a cat is shocked, and then sad? And on the same token if the other cat is its friend? I dunno, seems to me you were reading too much into the situation...