Elephants Mourning YouTube Scientists
When talking about animals displaying complex emotions, elephants stand out at the top of the list. They are incredibly intuitive, social, and emotional creatures that have been documented showing many emotions that you would expect from a human. From laughter to compassion, to intricate mourning rituals, their range of emotional complexity has earned them a spot among the top creatures in the Animal World.
The Mourning of YouTube Scientists
Recently, YouTube scientists have begun to document the many emotional behaviors of elephants, including their responses to death. In ongoing studies around the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, researchers have noticed the elephants responding surprisingly to dead members of their herds. Elephants have been seen paying their respects to the corpse of the deceased, gently touching their body and forming circles around them.
The methods used to document these behaviors have included camera-traps and drones, giving researchers a closer look at the rituals and mourning customs of elephants. Numerous videos have been uploaded on YouTube showing footage of elephants paying their respects to their deceased.
Understanding Elephant Mourning
In order to understand why elephants mourn their deceased, scientific research has isolated several fundamental aspects of their behavior. By studying the emotional responses of elephants to unfamiliar deceased bodies, scientists were able to determine that elephants not only mourn lost members, but they also remember them.
Elephants use their impressive olfactory ability and memory to detect their deceased herd members. Elephants travel long distances, making up their own family bonds. So when they come across the body of a “stranger”, they normally ignore it and continue their journey. However, when they recognize the body, they stand by and pay their respects.
Performing Rituals
Mourning rituals of human counterparts have been a long-standing custom around the world. These customs vary from culture to culture, but overall they center around gathering to honor the dead. And it appears that elephants do the same.
When elephants sense their deceased family members, their behavior patterns begin to alter. It’s not uncommon for them to attempt to interact with the corpse, gently touching and tapping it. They have even been known to use their trunks to fling soil or sand over the bodies. Numerous functions and ritualistic behaviors have been observed in elephants, indicating they’re aware of the gravity of the situation and displaying respect.
Why Do Elephants Mourn?
In the animal kingdom, death is a part of life, and survival is the top goal. This means that rarely do animals respond to the death of a companion. However, elephants are one of the exceptions, exhibiting emotional responses to their deceased family members that can last up to 12 hours.
This emotional response can be explained by the strength and stability of their emotional bond. Due to their complex emotional connection, it’s believed that elephants experience grief, sadness, and depression as humans do when a loved one passes away.
The Science Behind Mourning
Studies have also shown that elephants experience a decrease in reproductive hormones when a companion dies, indicating a higher-state of emotional stress. Researchers have determined that elephants have a longer duration of distress from the loss of a family member than any other creature in the Animal Kingdom.
Documenting the Behaviors of Elephants
Thanks to the advancements in camera-technology and the use of YouTube, scientists are now able to better document the behaviors of elephants. The videos on YouTube have provided documented evidence for many of the behaviors and complex emotions that scientists had previously only theorized.
These videos have shed light on the relationship between elephants and their deceased family members. They have shown us the intricate rituals they participate in and behaviors they exhibit with these bodies.
Elephants and Human Connections
The relationship between elephants and humans, in many respects, is very similar. In some of the videos on YouTube, scientists have seen elephants even treat humans who have died as a part of their herd members. This indicates that the mournful behavior of elephants is not limited to proximity.
They will sometimes display similar behaviors for humans in the same way that a person would handle a deceased family member. This ability of elephants to establish a connection and display these behaviors is a sign of their remarkably complex emotions and empathy.
The mourning rituals of elephants provide us with an excellent example of the complicated emotions that these creatures are often capable of. The documented footage of YouTube scientists has allowed us to observe just how intricate these rituals are, and offer us a glimpse of how connected elephants are to their family members, even in death.
