Articles for tag: animal emotions, elephant behavior, elephant intelligence, mourning in animals, wildlife empathy

gray elephant playing with mud

Elephants That Mourn Their Dead

Suhail Ahmed

Under a merciless sun, a family of elephants gathers quietly around a fallen elder, touching the body with careful trunks as if reading a final story written in scent and skin. For decades, scientists called scenes like this mysterious, even anecdotal; now, a new wave of research is piecing together the evidence with rigor. Elephant ...

The Science of Elephant Emotion

Why Elephants Mourn the Dead Like Humans

Gargi Chakravorty

In the wild plains of Africa and the forests of Asia, elephants display a behavior that feels hauntingly familiar to us: they mourn their dead. These gentle giants have been seen standing vigil over fallen companions, touching their bones with their trunks, and even returning to the same spot years later. Scientists believe these rituals ...