2024-03-03 07:51:54
Asian elephants noisily mourn and bury their dead young, a study by Indian scientists has found. The results suggest that animal behavior resembles human burial traditions.
Researchers have identified five burials of baby elephants by the giant mammals in northern Bengal in 2022 and 2023, according to the study published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa.
They found that in each case, the herd elephants carried the deceased baby elephant by the trunk and legs before burying it in the ground with its feet pointing upwards.
After analyzing sighting reports, digital photography and autopsy reports, we believe the carcasses were buried in an unusual manner regardless of the cause of death of the young animals, the authors said. In one case, it is noted that the herd made loud roars and sounds from the trunks around the buried elephant.
The study found that only young elephants were considered for burial, possibly because adult elephants were much heavier to carry than the rest of the herd. Authors Parveen Kaswan and Akashdeep Roy say their research found there was no direct human involvement in the deaths of the five young animals.
Distinct footprints of fifteen to twenty elephants were found around the graves and in the dirt on the bodies of those buried who died of systemic organ failure between the ages of three months and one year.
Elephants bury their young in irrigation canals in tea plantations, hundreds of meters away from the nearest settlements. In all five cases studied, the herd moved well away from the young animal’s grave and later avoided returning to the area. Asian elephants are an endangered species. It is estimated that there are about 26,000 specimens living in the wild, mostly living in India and some countries of Southeast Asia. Animals of the species live an average of 60-70 years.