• Question: Do animals have any mourning rituals like the elephant graveyard (is that true by the way?)

    Asked by anna1999 to Charlotte, Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 19 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Kevin Mahon

      Kevin Mahon answered on 19 Jun 2012:


      Yes the elephant ‘mourning’ ritual is very real as are their seemingly unexplainable fascination with elephant skulls. Some of the higher apes also have been observed to exhibit grieve like emotions as well as some wolfs. However – in terms of an actual ritual, it seems to be limited to humans, elephants and depending on your interpretation, possibly gorillas.

    • Photo: Valeria Senigaglia

      Valeria Senigaglia answered on 19 Jun 2012:


      Dolphins doesn’t have a proper ritual but they are famous for epimeletic behaviour. It means they help other animals or sometimes human in distress.
      Moreover dolphins have been seen to carry around dead calf for days after.

    • Photo: Joanna Cruden

      Joanna Cruden answered on 19 Jun 2012:


      I have known cases when a pet animal sits by the grave of its companion if that gets buried in the garden but I don’t think they have the same degree of mourning as humans do

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