Elephants "bury" their dead... a ritual examined

Elephants "bury" their dead... a ritual examined - Printable Version

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Elephants "bury" their dead... a ritual examined - Maxmars - 04-02-2024

Ever since I was a boy, I had heard that among all the animals in the world, elephants are among the few that seem to mourn their dead. Not only that, but elephants have been reported to have a 'dying place' where many of their remains can be found...

But I had never heard of anything approaching a 'ritual' or 'ritualized' handling of the deceased. In fact, insofar as word of mouth is concerned, there were accounts (verbal only) that in Africa, they did in fact 'handle' their dead calves in a burial fashion. But it had never been scientifically examined or encountered...

Now recently in Asia, the burial sites of four calves have been studied...

From Science Alert: Tragic And Mysterious Elephant Burial Ritual Witnessed by Scientists
also from ThreatenedTaxa.org: Unearthing calf burials among Asian Elephants ...

Asian elephants loudly mourn and bury their dead calves, according to a study by Indian scientists that details animal behaviour reminiscent of human funeral rites.
...
They found in each case that a herd carried the deceased calf by the trunk and legs before burying it in the earth with its legs facing upward.

"Through opportunistic observation, digital photography, fieldnotes, and postmortem examination reports, we suggest that the carcasses were buried in an abnormal recumbent style irrespective of the reasons for the calf's death," the study said.

Wild elephants in both Africa and Asia are known to visit carcasses at different stages of decomposition, but this study found different behaviours from the herds it studied.

In all five cases the herd "fled the site within 40 minutes of burial" and later avoided returning to the area, instead taking different parallel routes for migration.

I have to wonder at the behavior, and how it might be reconciled as 'biological' as opposed to 'cultural.'

RE: Elephants "bury" their dead... a ritual examined - FlyersFan - 04-02-2024

That's really interesting. I remember reading how elephants that were kept together for a while, and then separated for a while and brought back together, would remember the other elephants. Their behavior was like that of greeting old friends ... not getting to know someone new. Very familiar with each other.

I love elephants. They are so cool. I like gorillas too. When you see them at the zoo you just want to go and sit with them and have a chat. They are so human like.