The myth of elephant graveyards has permeated popular culture, and recent sightings of buried Asian elephant calves may finally lend some credence to the legend.
In the study published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa, two scientists describe five instances where elephant calves were found buried with their legs in an upright position in the irrigation ditches of tea plantations in Bengal, northern India. The authors suggest that unusual positioning, compression of the surrounding ground by the feet of several elephants, and injuries suggestive of postmortem dragging all point to deliberate burial practices.
If this conclusion is correct, these observations could potentially point to an understanding of death and grief unlike anything we’ve seen in the animal kingdom, and reveal yet another way humans may not be as unique as previously thought.
Archaeological evidence shows that our hominid ancestors have been burying their dead for at least 100,000 years, possibly much longer. Funerals are intriguing because they provide insight into the minds of the undertakers. For us, and probably our ancestors who introduced this practice, burial is not just about disposing of bodies, but also an expression of grief and honoring the life passed.
Across cultures, people devote time and effort to funerals as a way to commemorate life. Funerals are a clear demonstration of our sensitivity and empathy. In fact, it is believed that our reactions to death symbolize humanity. To date, evidence for similar mental representations of death is scarce in other animal species, and despite a few anecdotes, no animal species has been found to systematically bury their dead in a ritualized manner as we do.
Is the burial of elephants intentional?
It may be too early to exclude funerals from the list of unique people. While recent reports on calf burials are intriguing, these five burials were not directly observed, so questions remain. For example, it is possible that dead or weak calves fell into the ditches during transport before the ditch collapsed around the corpse due to panic experienced by the family.
But reports of burial are at least consistent with what we know about elephants’ acute responses to death. Elephants have been observed carrying the bodies of dead babies. They often show changes in behavior as they approach the carcass of a family member or another individual.
This response may include quietly probing, smelling and touching body parts with their heads down, perhaps trying to move or wake the carcass, and in rare cases, placing mud or large palm fronds over the bodies of dead relatives. These all probably correspond to what we would recognize as grief or mourning in humans.
understanding death
Of course, elephants aren’t the only animals that have interesting reactions to their dead friends. Crows often gather around and pick up the carcass of another dead crow in an event called a funeral procession. This social gathering appears to provide crows with an opportunity to learn about a danger to avoid so they don’t end up in the same situation (as opposed to offering a chance to say goodbye in the traditional sense of funerals).
Even some social insects, such as ants, clean their dead. When ants detect certain chemicals released by dying or dead individuals in their colonies, this prompts them to remove the corpses, or in a few species even bury them, to limit the possibility of disease transmission.
However, as researchers studying animal behavior, and more specifically grief, we have no reason to assume that this remarkable “corpse management” behavior means that ants have any understanding of life and death.
In the 1950s, biologist and entomologist EO Wilson applied the critical chemical to live ants, causing their nestmates to respond to a dead animal. They tried to drag the unfortunate individual out of the nest and threw him to a safe distance.
Similar responses to decomposition chemicals have also been recorded in mice that bury dead ones long enough for them to stink. Like Wilson’s ants, they attempt to bury mice that have been drugged but are still alive and sprinkled with the signature scent of decay. They even try to bury wooden sticks with the same smell. Some social animals are programmed to remove decaying matter from their nest sites.
These examples seen in rats and ants are clearly different from human burial and the mourning behavior we see in many other species, including elephants and orcas.
While the jury is still out on whether elephants actually choose to bury their dead, their emotional reactions to the death of family members or co-workers are undeniably extraordinary and extremely fascinating to observe. It remains difficult to adequately explain these responses without suggesting that elephants have some kind of concept of death.
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