Humans often believe that we are the only species capable of complex thought and emotions. One such emotion is that of grief. It is a well known fact that humans grieve over the death of other humans, especially those they are close to, but are animals aware of death? For a long time people did not consider the ways animals deal with death. Recently there has been more of an interest since observation of chimpanzees and other primates have shown that some animals may confront death in human-like ways.
Interest was sparked back in 2008 when an 11-year-old gorilla at the German Münster Zoo refused to give up her dead baby. He died at the age of three months from a heart defect. It took days before she stopped holding him and allowed zookeepers to remove his body. It had previously been observed that many primate mothers show this type of behavior upon the death of their child; they will hold on to their infants and treat them as though they were still alive.
It was also observed at Blair Drummond Safari Park in Scotland that chimpanzees will react to the death of an elder in their group. A 50-year-old chimpanzee named Pansy started to become slower as she neared death. The other chimpanzees appeared to be aware and started to sleep by her and would even stroke and groom her. After her death one chimpanzee studied her face and moved her arms, as if to check if she were still alive. Contact with her stopped after that, except for one chimpanzee that pounded on her torso that night, as if in an attempt to make her wake up.
Research doesn’t stop with primates. It has been observed that elephants also react in a particular way to death. Elephants presented with a number of species of bones will spend the most time observing those of other elephants. When one elephant dies they will often all stand nearby and touch their tusks to that elephant’s tusks before leaving. Elephants will also return to the place a loved one has died and stand there for a long period of time in silence. Behavior has also been studied in lions, mole rats, and honeybees. Recently a video has emerged of a squirrel protecting another squirrel’s body from a pack of crows.
Then the question is: are these animals morning death just as humans do or are they just not aware of what is happening?
Video of squirrel protecting another dead squirrel:
http://news.discovery.com/animals/video-shows-squirrel-reacting-to-death.html
Posted by Caitlin Descovich O’Hare (1)
For additional Reading:
http://news.discovery.com/animals/chimpanzee-death-dying-behavior.html
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ReplyDeleteHey Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteThis topic is so interesting. I wonder if animals have a ritualized funeral service like how humans do. I also wonder if animals bury other animals since dogs can bury bones and such.
In the video you posted up the author talks about awareness and I feel that if animals are aware that predators are around, why can't they be self-aware and have empathy like humans do.
Posted by Whitney Huynh
I also read articles about how some animals appear to mourn the death of another. I explicitly remember reading about a cat that would not leave the side of another cat that had been hit by a car and carried her to the side of the road. Have you found out if there have been any studies dedicated to animal emotions, specifically the effect of death on animals on others of the same species? That would be something I would be interested in reading.
ReplyDeletePosted by James Lin
If a true example of animal mourning is needed, then look no further than that of Koko the gorilla. Koko is perhaps one of the world's most famous apes, intelligent and sensitive. In an act of interspecies love not too different from a human's, Koko adopted a kitten. Named All Ball by Koko herself, the kitten and gorilla formed a close relationship. When All Ball died, Koko is known to have made signs for “Bad, sad, bad” and “Frown, cry, frown, sad.” Not only was the ape truly mourning the loss of a loved one, she was expressing herself in a very human way.
ReplyDeletePosted by Jacob Lane
This topic is really fascinating. I often wonder about this myself. My uncle owns my dogs sister (they are from the same litter and actual came out right after one another). My uncle and father work together and the two dogs go to work together. They see each other everyday and go home to separate homes at night.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder what will happen if one dies before the other. The dogs become restless and whine if they are for some reason separated for more than a couple of days now. I wonder that if one of the dies what will happen to the other one and if it will effect her mood.
Hopefully that day will not come for a long time from now.
Posted by Noelle Kellicker
Caitlin-
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this, the subject matter was very interesting. I was intrigued to find out that there were other animals that show signs of grief when one of their own dies. I have heard about this about chimpanzees before, but the elephant example was new to me. It is interesting that some species do this, because in other species the opposite behavior is also observed. It is not uncommon to hear of a group of the same species rejecting a sick or dying member in order to prevent themselves from getting infected. This has also been seen with domestic animals, such as dogs and cats, that leave their home before they die in order die in a place where they are not in danger of infecting other animals. In either case this may imply that some animals are conscientious of the health of others, which would be an interesting topic to find out more information on.
Posted by Janelle Hayes
This is a really interesting topic. The only thing is that you talk about the emotion of grief, and the elephant example seems to be the only one that is evidence that animals other than humans experience this. The other examples seem to show that the animals may be aware of when another animal is going to die, or are unaware of when one is dead, but they don't seem to convey any emotion about it. The elephants' touching of the dead animals tusks, all in sequence, does seem to be some kind of ritual, however.
ReplyDeletePosted by Rachael Mroz
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ReplyDeleteI once read somewhere about a gorilla who was taught, through sign language, the concept that it would inevitably die someday. This was apparently something that it had never considered before, and it became very depressed and refused to eat for a while.
ReplyDeleteKoko the famous signing gorilla is another example of an animal in mourning. Upon being told that her kitten was killed by a car, Koko became distressed and began signing "bad" "sad" "frown" and "cry."
Also, in my personal experience, I've seen a pet mouse become significantly less active after her partner died. I don't know if it's correct but i took this as a sign of grieving.
Posted by Rhys Ursuliak
This was a great article. I am a firm believer that animals do have much more emotion than we believe. There can be much communication on levels undetectable by humans that we have not yet discovered.
ReplyDeleteMy dog knows when I am not feeling well. When I am upset, she stays by my side and does not leave. She has even come and sat on my lap before, despite her 60 pounds. I do not think this is due to instinct, but that they actually can detect and feel emotion, with attempts to comfort us or others of their kind.
Posted by Abbie Saranteas
This is a really interesting post and article....kinda sad though. I do think animals do know and feel some emotion when someone in their kin or clan dies. I mean you can see sadness in a puppy when their owner leaves the house and it follows the owner in protest. Or even happiness like in that video or the lion who hugs this women at the zoo when the lion realizes the women who came to visit was the one who saved him when he was a cub. Emotion is clearly evident in animals and something like death has to give out one as well.
ReplyDeletePosted By Jobin
I think it's interesting to look into animal emotion, but the word 'emotion' implies cognition equivalent to our own. Do these animals interpret and understand sadness the way we do? Does cognition lead do physiological sadness, or is the order reversed; does one feel sad and only then interpret why? It would be interesting to understand the process of sadness to build an understand of emotions, though I fear that sadness may be too immoral a feeling to work with.
ReplyDelete-Joey Needleman
As a I commented on a previous post I find the topic of animal emotion extremely interesting. I definitely believe that animals are capable of emotion and I feel like I have witnessed it. Dogs feel guilty when they go the bathroom in the house or ruin a piece of furniture. I have seen a video where a wild baboon lost their baby and held on to it, refusing to let it go. It does beg the question is the animal simply confused, or are they experiencing some kind of sadness. I think it could be both, but it would be very interesting to look into animal emotion more.
ReplyDeletePosted by Suzanne Sullivan
Thank you all for the replies; I think many of you brought up interesting examples.
ReplyDeleteWhitney, I researched some more and found that chimpanzees and elephants have both been known to throw leaves and branches over their family members, which shows signs of a sort of burial. I also read about a red fox that was observed burying her mate after a cougar killed him. She was seen piling on dirt and twigs and then packing them down to make sure he was completely covered.
James, I looked into the research behind some of this and there seem to be quite a few studies, most of them focus on chimpanzees and other primates (I am assuming because they are most closely related to humans and because they have shown many examples of grief). There is a website I found that describes a study released in May 2011 that captures the mourning behavior in primates: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/primate-diaries/2011/09/29/touching-death/
It also includes another video, this one is of a mother chimpanzee dealing with the loss of her child.
Posted by Caitlin Descovich O'Hare
Jacob, That is a very interesting example, particularly because it shows that grief is not limited to within an animal’s own species. I do remember hearing about Koko before, but had almost forgotten about that relationship.
ReplyDeleteNoelle, Hopefully, like you said, that will not happen anytime soon. As they do not live together they may not realize the other has died perhaps, but I am sure they would show signs of loss. I know that most times when an owner has multiple pets and one dies the other has a hard time dealing with the loss, especially if the pets were adopted at the same time or are siblings. I know when my family cat lost his “brother” (different litters and adopted separately) it took him a long time of grief before he started to seem like his old self.
Janelle, I have heard of this phenomenon! I also read up on bees that will encase a mouse, which has wondered into their hive and died, in honey to protect themselves from any sicknesses or diseases. It is interesting that we are not the only health conscious species.
Posted by Caitlin Descovich O'Hare
Rachael, Yes I am glad you picked up on that. I gave many examples because this topic is controversial as there have been examples of animals showing human signs of grief, but also examples that seem to convey that animals are simply unaware. Personally, I believe many species of animals are aware of loss and deal with grief in their own way just as humans have many different grief rituals.
ReplyDeleteRhys, I would say that the mouse’s reaction is definitely a sign of grief; many pets show similar signs after the loss of a follow pet. I have not heard of the gorilla being made aware of death, but I find it very fascinating. I think it shows that humans may know more about their own death throughout their life although other species do have some awareness of it, but they are not taught about death as we are.
Abbie, That is another good point; that animals do not only show emotions when it comes to death. One of my cats does a similar thing; when I have had a bad day he sticks right by my side, but he usually spends his time by himself.
Posted by Caitlin Descovich O'Hare
Jobin, Yes, this is a very specific example of emotions and I do think there are many examples of other emotions that animals have shown. I remember when I used to petsit this dog on most weekends and every time I left the house he would sit at the windowsill, clearly very upset with being alone.
ReplyDeleteJoey, It would be very remarkable to see the results of a humane psychological study of animals and emotions. I think in any case animals most likely do not deal with emotions the same way as humans; most humans do not even deal with emotions the same. I think this is similar to how we discussed the definition of behavior in class. There are so many interpretations it becomes a very grey area.
Suzanne, Yes, similarly to how I have answered many of the other comments, I do believe that animals show signs of many different emotions. There will always be the question of whether they are aware of what they are experiencing or what is going on.
Posted by Caitlin Descovich O'Hare