Elephants do grieve, and they are one of the few animals who are similar to humans in mourning patterns. Believe it or not, elephants cry. They bury their dead and pay tribute to the bodies and to the bones.
A growing body of evidence suggests that at least some species recognize death's special nature. “I believe we are now justified in thinking that chimpanzees have some kind of awareness of death,” says psychologist James Anderson of Scotland's University of Stirling, who has been studying chimp responses to the dying.
All animals have an innate sense of mortality. Fight or flight, they all want to live another day. Whether they are actually aware why, I can't answer.
They may be lethargic, have a loss of appetite, or your pet may even have a terminal diagnosis from a veterinarian. Dogs are similarly, if not more, in tune with their environments and surroundings, and more likely than not, they fully understand when a canine companion is on its way out.
Asian elephants, like their African cousins, seem to mourn their dead, sometimes even carrying their lost infants in their trunks for days or weeks, new research finds. Whether elephants understand death in the same way humans do is unknown — and probably unknowable.
Elephants can recognize their family members after decades of separation. After being shown bones and tusks from deceased elephants, elephants reacted strongest to those from a member of their herd. This suggests they recognized and remembered family members even years after they had passed.
Researchers believe elephants' good memories are a big part of how elephants survive and why so many live so long (50 to 60 years or more on average). Those who work closely with elephants also have noticed that elephants remember injuries and can hold grudges against those who have hurt them.
Humans grieve; many animals grieve. Children grieve, for both human beings and for animals. Grief is an emotion that bonds us to others, and children learn to feel empathy for all living beings by understanding that animals grieve, too. Here are some examples of animals who feel grief for their lost loved ones.
Ever since researchers sequenced the chimp genome in 2005, they have known that humans share about 99% of our DNA with chimpanzees, making them our closest living relatives.
Mammals share the same nervous system, neurochemicals, perceptions, and emotions, all of which are integrated into the experience of pain, says Marc Bekoff, evolutionary biologist and author. Whether mammals feel pain like we do is unknown, Bekoff says—but that doesn't mean they don't experience it.
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Although dogs don't experience the range of emotions that humans do, they can still perceive when something isn't quite right. They are very much aware of when their family is in mourning, even though they may not know that someone has died.
Although my dog may stare at me like I'm a deity, there's no evidence to suggest that non-human animals have religion. They don't worship, pray or believe in gods of any kind, but they do perform ritualistic behaviours, prompting some to speculate that animals could have a spiritual side.
Since they may not actually understand death as something permanent, sometimes a dog will wait patiently, believing that the deceased caregiver, will return. Still others believe that the dog may just be reacting to the grief exhibited by humans in the house as they deal with the death of a household member.
To date, there's only one species that has been called 'biologically immortal': the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii. These small, transparent animals hang out in oceans around the world and can turn back time by reverting to an earlier stage of their life cycle.
Emu dies due to lack of attention.
This sadness and grief are unique to elephants among the members of the animal world. But this species does not cry out of sadness. A mammal-like elephant is capable of producing tears but for eye lubrication only. They do not physically produce tears associated with a sad emotion.
Could we mate with other animals today? Probably not. Ethical considerations preclude definitive research on the subject, but it's safe to say that human DNA has become so different from that of other animals that interbreeding would likely be impossible.
Human and chimp DNA is so similar because the two species are so closely related. Humans, chimps and bonobos descended from a single ancestor species that lived six or seven million years ago.
4. It's probably not that surprising to learn that humans share 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees–but incredibly, we also share 70% with slugs and 50% with bananas.
Memory Span
"Dogs forget an event within two minutes," reported National Geographic, citing a 2014 study performed on various animals from rats to bees. Other animals have long-term memories, such as dolphins, but dogs don't seem to have a long-term memory that lasts much beyond those two minutes.
A comparable study on chimpanzees found that bees had the worst memory, with a recall duration of just 2.5 seconds. Also earning bees a spot on the list of top 10 animals with the worst memory in the world.
Cuttlefish, an octopus relative, retain their cognitive powers as they grow older. Even in old age, cuttlefish remain as mentally sharp as ever. Ageing mammals — especially humans — gradually lose their ability to remember specific events.
Nearly a century later, extensive observations have confirmed that elephants indeed remember injuries and hold grudges against their abusers.