By Robbert van der Linde
04 March 2024 at 21:06
Just like humans, elephants bury their own kind when they have died. Indian scientists have seen elephants holding communal ‘funerals’ several times. They also loudly express their sadness.
The scientists examined five occasions in 2022 and 2023 when Asian elephants said goodbye to deceased conspecifics. This mainly concerned young elephants that had died naturally, the scientists write in the biological journal Journal of Threatened Taxa.
The ‘burials’ took place in the Bengal region in eastern India. Each ceremony was attended by at least fifteen to twenty elephants. It was striking that the elephants did not seem to shy away from people. One of the burials took place a few hundred meters from a village.
The researchers saw how the deceased young elephants were carried by their herd to a special place. There they were placed on their backs and buried under sand. Their legs and trunk remained above ground.
The assembled elephants audibly mourned their deceased relatives. They howled and trumpeted loudly with their trunks. After the ritual, which lasted about forty minutes, the surviving elephants did not return to the burial site.
Burials are not unique within the animal kingdom, but they are uncommon. In addition to people and elephants, chimpanzees and ants also bury their deceased relatives. Unlike humans and elephants, they do not hold an elaborate ‘ceremony’.
A buried elephant cub. Photo: West Bengal Forest Department)
Beeld: Getty Images
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IndiaWetenschapDierenOlifanten
2024-03-04 20:06:44
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