Do elephants grieve like people do?

Having watched elephants I think they intensely grieve when they lose another elephant they love. I do believe elephants feel love.

I know dogs do, (Greyfriars Bobby https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyfriars_Bobby and other dogs), my own dog who grieved, felt guilty, and had a range of other emotions, and there’s strong evidence that gorillas do as well (“Koko, a nationally known gorilla with a 1,000-plus word sign language vocabulary, has been grieving the passing of one of her long-time gorilla companions, Michael…”) http://www.gorilla.org/news/080200.html).

Elephants are extremely intelligent social animals also, and I’d say they do. You could read the autobiographical story of Modoc and her handler: http://www.amazon.com/Modoc-Story-Greatest-Elephant-Lived/dp/0060929510

In my personal experience dogs have emotions and they grieve at the loss of another dog or a family member. Their emotion mainly depends on the dog’s family, his lifestyle, the relationship with the deceased etc. Similarly elephants too get distressed by similar situations, and continue to show signs of grieving for extended periods of time.

The reasons elephants mourn lost loved ones could be related to other characteristics people share with them: their life spans and family structures. They live an average of 70 years, which is about the length of a human life span. Combined with this longevity is the elephants’ social structure. They live in close-knit family groups, just as humans often do. Combining these two factors sets the stage for a deep sense of loss when loved ones die and respect for the dead. The result is one of their most endearing qualities: their human-like emotional responses.

I say yes, and mostly because we are learning so much more of the emotional state of our being is affected by our physical state and the biome of our gut and how it affects our neurology. And if that is how it is with humans, it would be that way with other animals.

Yes they do. I read of one instance where an elephant brought the boy of a dog he was friends with in a preserve to a place to grieve. Also have seen photos of elephants standing in grief next to dead friends or family members.

Animals touch my heart so much. The elephant is one of my favorite.

I couldn’t possibly write all the information I have on their emotions down here but I can give you this link:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/unforgettable/emotions.html
Elephants have even exhibited the human crying emotion.

I love animals dearly but I have a special place in my heart for elephants. I have many statues, paintings, quilts, masks and drawings in my home of them and other animals.

Also we might as well close all the zoos because don’t forget that whales and dolphins are people too.

Makes be sad just to think about it.

From what i’ve seen & been told, absolutely they do.
The Lord that is David Attenborough never lies.

No, of course not. They couldn’t possibly fit into the pews or folding chairs at the graveside service.

^ If the elephants were that greatly trained, then we might as well forget they even ever had emotions to begin with, that brings to mind a certain memory of certain dogs playing poker.

Ahhh yes, anthropomorphism in it’s highest form.

Honestly we humans prove how very good we are at personification, don’t we!

They must have emotions and or feelings because the animal kingdom is connected and considering our closest relative is the chimpanzee and the Bonobo we still mistreat them and then humiliate them more by making ourselves feel powerful by putting them in laboratories and testing them day after day like prisoners and people must be blind if they can’t see the emotions the chimpanzees have like when they are released here.

@JLeslie There is no question in my mind about that.’

@snowberry Thanks for the great links. While the one about Modoc appears to be broken, if you copy the entire link to your clipboard and paste it into a new tab, it works fine.

@Smitha What an amazing piece of information about elephants mourning the loss of a human that heralded their cause.

@zenvelo I had an extremely intelligent Belgian shepherd named Arwin. She knew lots of English, because you could simply talk to her and she would respond accordingly. Back when I used to love to shoot pool, my family got me a birthday cake with a guy bent over a pool table as its center decoration. Before enjoying the cake, we went out to eat. When we returned, the cake was there and looked undisturbed except that the center decoration, the guy shooting pool, was gone. It looked for the world like somebody had very carefully used a knife to cut around the edges, then inserted a spatula to remove the centerpiece without any damage to the surrounding cake.

My wife was sure Arwin did it, but it was so cleanly removed I could not imagine she could be the culprit. Nonetheless, my wife called Arwin into the kitchen and just asked her, “Arwin, did you do this to the cake?” pointing at the damage. Immediately, Arwin hung her head down, dropped he tail between her legs, and started to slink out of the room. Case closed. And you’re damned straight she experiences guilt.

@janbb Doesn’t it add to the fascination with the reality of the world we are part of.

@KaY_Jelly Thanks for the excellent links.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room This was a natural for you. :-)

But it hits me the same way.

@ucme Far more than most “Lords” I’m willing to accept Lord David Attenborough as telling the truth,

@CWOTUS But Hitler and Pol Pot could. There you have it.

@KaY_Jelly That is so touching to watch.

@ETpro I know! Isn’t it crazy to think that we can cage them up in a facility and when they go free see how they act and still allow the inhumane treatment of any animal.

It makes me go nuts.

I can’t stop thinking about this stuff.

Like about how the NYC carriage horses feel when they are overworked, and then go back to a cold concrete stall. I am not sure whereabouts you live, but I do not live anywhere in the vicinity of NYC I have been there once. We have carriage horses here and I am not sure that I am too fond of it. Have you ever seen this video?

Geez, it brings me to tears every time.

And now they are saying that the carriage rides may end here.

And then you have the non activists, but I personally am just wondering what happens to the retired carriage horses who no longer make a profit, does they just live in the concrete stables for the rest of their senior life, because if so, that is to me pretty much just like putting an elderly parent in a cage.

It could easily be rectified if instead of having an auction they were to have the horses go up for adoption, because I think the animals would have a better chance if they were adopted and even if a group of activists or perhaps a non profit group were to keep tabs on the horses and the new owners just to make sure they were being treated humanely, I think that is normal procedure anyway when it comes to adoption, well any group that wants to promote a humane treatment towards the adopted animal would put that effort in IMHO.

I even think that horses have emotions. They may not talk like us, but they show their emotions, we could break it down in this way…horses are prey animals, they are not predators so they spook easily because they have the fight or flight response and so because of that their response is almost always flight. That tells me they are scared, and that to me is at least one emotion similar to humans.

I suppose we could always ask them. Just to know for certain.

@KaY_Jelly I share your concerns for the Boston Carriage Horses. Thanks for raising the issue.

@josie We claim to be smarter than them. Let’s demonstrate the truth of that claim.

@ETpro it is always nice to hear when others share the same concerns and imho it helps to make us feel validated in our concerns.

I suppose and I’m not sure how you personally feel towards it but the next step is doing something and standing up for those who cannot talk.

I can’t speak for anyone and I haven’t actually taken an activist stand but I swear if an animal rights group comes along in my area I just might join them lol. I just don’t feel like what I’m doing right now is making enough changes.

About a month or more ago I wanted to rescue a cow, but then I realized that would be theft and I also realized that I’m no better because I have no place for a cow :/ But the owners were seriously pissing me off since they had the cow chained to a pole on their front lawn about 200ft from a busy highway and the cow did not even have enough chain to lay down, the owners have done this often, in the summer the cow was tied to a tree. Meanwhile all the other cows were off grazing in the pasture.

I mean it’s like some form of negatitive punishment training method/bad time out for cows.

@KaY_Jelly I don’t have the answers either, but I very much share your heartfelt concern for animals. I suggest as we come upon effective answers that we can actually do, we share them.

@ETpro I agree. :)

Not sure. I saw a BBC documentary recently with emperor penguin grieving and even one penguin consoling the mother penguin of a chick frozen to death. I couldn’t believe it. The pictures where so amazing. BBC built penguin robots with cameras inside them. Even fake eggs with cameras.

@mattbrowne I’d love to see that if you have a link for it.

@mattbrowne I saw some of that footage. Absolutely amazing.

@mattbrowne I just saw some of that, fantastic!

@janbb A link, another link and some background

Animals are amazing. ♡
:-D

Ironically I get this question after I’ve been searching for days around my local city for at least one wine that has no animal stuff in it.
:/

And hallelujah I found one.

It’s a reminder to keep searching for more vino.
No animal spirit must be in the spirit, it only makes me whino like an emo. :-@

@janbb – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21393173

@mattbrowne Oh great! Thanks. Longgone posted three links but the first ones didn’t load – will try yours soon.

@janbb Really? Sorry about that, they work fine for me.

All animals do.