I recently saw a program on the Discovery Channel about elephants that included a segment where the group they were following came across the body of another dead elephant. The reaction of the elephants was strange, with them stopping to touch the bones of the dead animal with their trunks while they all gathered around. The program suggested that this shows that elephants can grieve for their dead and are thus fully concious beings. Does anyone know of any scientific research about this? Also, what is your opinion?
2007-09-02 04:12:19 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
Elephants are huge when it comes to emotion. Sadly grief has been one of their downfalls. More often than not when a herd is poached or a mother dies the calf becomes so depressed that it will quit eating. It more or less starves to death from depression. There are many rescue centers that deal with orphaned elephants and it takes an insane amount of care to bring the calves out of their depression funk just to get them to eat.
As far as adults go they are in the same boat with grief. When an older elephant is ready to die it will leave the herd and another will follow just to keep it company. When adults and younger elephants happen across elephants that have passed you will also see a shift in behavior. More or less the same type of respect behavior you would see in humans at a wake, funeral or in a cemetary. I have even seem some go as far as to move the bodies/bones of the dead they happen across to "nicer" locations.
Short reply. Yes, they do. Believe it or not you can see grief in many animals that are listed higher up on the ranks of "smarts".
2007-09-02 07:23:36 · answer #1 · answered by The Cheshire 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
When I was a teenager ( a very long time ago) I saw a National Geographic program about the "elephant graveyards". It has always stuck with me as proof that other mammals (herbivores in particular) do morn losses. Now I raise goats (for spinning fiber not to eat) and I can say with absolute confidence that they do morn the passing of a herd member. When my matriarch passed there was chaos in the pasture for 2 weeks. Last year I had a cougar take off with 2 kids, their Moms cried for days. This year I had sold a couple young does and one of them had to come back home. I had expected her to have a hard time re-intergrating with the herd (all the books say they have no kinship beyond adulthood). To my surprise she was recognized and accepted back almost instantly.
So I think animals that are part of a "society" are self aware more so than those who live solitary. To think that we are the only species capable of suffering loss is just arrogant.
2007-09-02 11:43:47 · answer #2 · answered by R M 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I heard of another mirror experiment where they took the elephants and put a color marking on its head.
Some of the elephants would look in the mirror and touch the colored spot on its head with is trunk.
which shows that they are aware of themselves.
I saw the same program on the Discovery Channel/
Elephants seem to be verhy intelligent and have complex social relationships.
2007-09-02 12:20:10 · answer #3 · answered by michael971 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, about 1998 or 1999, there was an elephant named Damini who witnessed her companion elephant named Champakali die during childbirth. As a result of that event and with no medical reason, Damini laid down and refused to eat or drink for 45 days until she died.
If you do a search on Yahoo for Damini, you will find the article.
As a caretaker of many animals, I am always concerned about the mental health of the animal in addition to it's physical health. They do show emotions, although there are people who don't believe it.
2007-09-02 11:19:46 · answer #4 · answered by Gary D 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have seen in another program that elephants just by putting their feet on the bones of a dead elephant they can recognize who it was and when they recognize it they start grieving almost like humans .
2007-09-02 11:24:03 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, elephants, grieve, laugh, love and have just about all other emotions I can think of. They are extremely intelligent, closely-knit matriarchal societies who care very closely for, and about, one another. When a little one is lost, they will tear down a village to find it, if that's where they think it is, and when they lose a member, they stay nearby for days, crying real tears and grieving for their collective loss.
Makes their loss and abuse even sadder.
2007-09-02 11:25:44 · answer #6 · answered by ciamalo 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, a method to measure the 'consiousness' of themselves is putting the animals in front of a mirror. A dog, although quite intelligent, usually cannot tell if the thing it sees in the mirror is itself, like my dog. It barks like crazy and runs away if I put the mirror up close. There was a program involving this where they tested animals this way. Most primates did realize this and a lot of chimpanzees started to play around with themselves. Dolphins knew. Dogs didn't.
They also did this with an elephant, where they got this huge mirror and put it in front of an elephant. The elephant first stared at it.. and then screamed and charged at it and shattered it. Which goes to say they are not consious of themselves.
2007-09-02 11:18:54 · answer #7 · answered by longd 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
yeah, they can. Elephants greive the death of their loved ones and have funeral-like rituals too. They also are afraid of their species' skeletons just like humans. In that sense, elephants are very intelegent and have a lot in common with humans.
2007-09-02 11:19:23 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Anything with a heart and soul can grieve...especially for the death of it's own kind.
2007-09-02 11:17:39 · answer #9 · answered by Georgia Girl 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've heard they carry or drag there dead to burial.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1031_051031_elephantbones.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8209
2007-09-02 11:18:19 · answer #10 · answered by char__c is a good cooker 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋