How do Asian elephants react to the death of their loved ones? How do they mourn? Researchers have studied this. We will explain everything to you.
In order to carry out their study on how theAsian elephant reacts to death, researchers used participatory videos on YouTube. After analysis, here is their report published in the newspaper Royal Society : the most common reactions are sniffing, touching and some elephants put their trunk in the face of a carcass or shake it with their paws. In addition, specialists have found that elephants make noise in response to a death and groups gather around the corpse, trumpeting together.
Another amazing fact: female elephants have been seen dragging carcasses with their trunks. According to the researchers, this could mean that they realize that the dead can no longer move on their own.
Lead author of the study, Dr Sanjeeta Pokharel said she first saw Asian elephants react to death in 2013. She saw a female elephant who died of an infection and a younger female circling around of the corpse. “That’s when we got curious”explained the biologist from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. “There were stories about it, there was documentation in the newspapers, but there was no scientific documentation. »
You should also know that this behavior has also been observed in other mammals, such as monkeys, great apes, whales and dolphins. Experts also believe that giant mammals have the most complex emotional relationships in the animal kingdom.
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