So if they do mourn, would that suggest that they have some form of understanding about their mortality as if they value their life? That's pretty sentient actually.
It's likely that they simply understand that they won't see that individual anymore, and feel sadness over that. They likely don't associate that with the value of their own lives. But that's just my hypothesis.
Elephants are very sentient creatures, their brains are very developed amongst the animal kingdom comparable with that of chimps and dolphins. Elephants can do many things that few animals can such as recognize themselves in the mirror, show high levels of empathy, have a degree of artistic creativity although it's not true that elephants can paint as many are led to believe as they are been guided secretly by their trainers. However, they can select favourite colours and exhibit greater abstract thinking and problem solving skills compared with other animals.
IrishLass 77 because animals don't experience emotions the same way humans do. So saying it's a simple as 'mourning' or something similar means they are reacting the same way a human would, when we know that isn't true.
Humans have a tendency to 'project' emotions on to other animals. We know other animals do not have the same emotional reactions, it is hard for us as a species to accept other animals may not feel the same way we do, or if they do we can't prove it yet
but we, ourselves are animals, and how can we know they dont have some form of emotional reaction? different people from different cultures portray certain emotions differently, and it can vary between individuals too, also some people are more sensitive emotionally whilst others are more focused, but still feel, and then there are people who seemingly have no emotion at all. we cant tell whats really going on with a different networking within an animals mind, and we cant read their thoughts, but does that mean that, for certain, they cannot have a human-like emotional reaction internally? given that we ourselves are animals, i believe it is safe to say that some, if not all mammals and possibly various other animals, are capable of emotional thought amongst other things. thank you for your time.
To me that fact that they do this in spite of the possible dangers it presents (disease,possible predation) shows that there has to be some sort of emotional response going on. If it was strictly just curiosity they would have evolved to avoid that risk. I doubt they stop and caress other dead animal corpses this way. In my opinion emotion is the one thing that can cause animals to disregard their own safety and act counter intuitively.
That's exaclty what I thought. How would they know about old age and dying? They possibly would assume a predator caused it since animals are instinctively aware from witnessing hunts for millions of years. I'd say it's all 3 grief, shock, and simple curiosity. Since they're in a herd, there would be less fear of predators letting them have a chance to observe the body.
@@MrsMelissaRich so you think that elephants which are putting colorful flowers and leaves onto their dead "friends" are just curious Sry for my english
They actually do. There is an example of a Kenyan woman who was sleeping under a tree, who woke up to find elephants surrounding her and burying her with leaves and dirt because they thought she had passed away
elephants react to their own kind dying so differently than other animals do, they seem to have a much better understanding of death than most. Even other intelligent animals might try to coax a dead body to react or get up, but they seem to know thats not gonna happen, and they'll visit the body repeatedly, sometimes long after there's nothing left but bones, no other animals do that besides humans visiting gravesites.
Well, humans created an idea of a place of eternal torment, so it’s no wonder non human animals might have a better grasp of death than us. Also, fun fact: What’s funny is, the pain you’d experience burning alive wouldn’t even happen if you’re dead, since your brain isn’t alive to sense the pain in the first place. The physical pain you experience is only because of your nervous system. Without a living brain, there’s zero pain. Period. End of story. Rant over.
A few other species appear to have "funeral processions"...rhesus monkeys, chimpanzees, dolphins, rats, and a few species of bird including magpies and parrots/cockatoos (although cockatoos typically only display grief at the death of a human caretaker, they tend not to show these emotions with other members of their species in the wild).
Elephants not only mourn, they mourn everyone that they grow attached to emotionally, from humans to dogs to other elephants. If they loved it, they will not only mourn it, and mourn HARD, they will also create graves that they will visit and also have an emotional response to when they re-visit it at a later date.
Cows kind shows the same behaviour in the milk industry when their calf is taking away from them after birth. Stress and grief. its a bit concerning thinking about it. I think it makes the thought difficult of drinking the milk myself
Cows kind shows the same behaviour in the milk industry when their calf is taking away from them after birth. Stress and grief. its a bit concerning thinking about it. I think it makes the thought difficult of drinking the milk myself
@@andreasjonsson5071 Don’t worry. While cows are mammals, they aren’t super smart or anything. Even dogs outsmart them. From everything we can tell, they have no self-awareness.
Hmm, yea I see you point. But it still feels strange even though they might not be as smart as dog. Maybe its not the intelligence that makes it bothering@@genghisn7
A good zoologist knows that you have to be careful about jumping to conclusions, especially since most of us want to humanize other animals behavior, however I'd say its safe to say that this body has brought about emotion in the elephants. They likely understand that they will never see this individual again. Chimpanzees are also capable of mourning, so I'd say this is a pretty solid hypothesis.
You can see almost the same behavior in a lot of intelligent and group-oriented species, like wolves and orcas, and even 'dumb' animals will sometimes behave in a similar fashion. Humans don't give animals the credit they deserve. Just because they don't use tools or speak our language does not mean that they are stupid or void of emotion.
I wonder how Dolphins react to similar things, be interesting to see that and fully agree, I fully agree we shouldn't think of them as equal to use, that's not to say they're dumb or in anyway less intelligent or deserving of compassion in anyway as things are always relative anyway. Rats are an incredibly intelligent form of rodents, they actually eat their dead ones as far as I am aware, the cannibals of the rodent world, again as far as I know or have heard.
Jeremy Smith dolphins are known to carry a dead calf for a few days after it has died, and will fiercely defend a dead calf from predators, even if they know it is dead
I learned from a Scientist at the Baltimore zoo that Elephants have 50x the memory capacity that a Human does. They remember every moment, of every second of the day from the time they are born, til the time they pass. They remember their own birth. They also have a resonating chamber to communicate. This resonating sound can be heard by other Elephants up to 15 miles away. Elephants being as smart as they are, also Love unlike any other Animal in the Kingdom. Some are even said to pass away from being so heartbroken. Which would mean they feel deep emotions. Seeing them Mourn is just another sign of how intelligent these beautiful Animals are. I think there's so much that Humans can learn from them. I'd be interested to see a Dolphin and Elephant in the same area, and see how they react to eachother. They are both clearly very intelligent , so it wouldn't be far fetched to see if they establish some sort of relationship.
Buffalo Titan it’s quite interesting to see how much an elephant remembers. They will find the body of there matriarch who could have died years ago and still do things similar to what happen in this video. They will cover the dead in dirt and sticks, they really are amazing creatures, and show a much wider span of emotions then we normally associate with animals other than humans
The experts know a lot, and people generally want to humanise everything. There’s a lot of animal behaviour that initially looks human, but turns out not to be. For example, when big cats in captivity lose their companion they often really do look like they are experiencing grief. But if you provide them with another companion they immediately stop and return to normal. It’s probably the stress of the pack of social interaction that is distressing them.
@@HkFinn83You could say the exact same thing about humans, when humans are isolated&lonely, they may miss their friends and become suicidal but if they're introduced to a new group of friends, suddenly they'll get on with life... There's difference between humanising animals and pretending like certain emotions are exclusive to humans.
Since forever, experts and even philisophers were keen on defying what made humans unique to other species. Which is a lot. But in that process, we always declined anything that made animals like us. "They communicate using complex signals and movement but it cannot be a language because language is unique to humans." "They show emotions and complex social behaviours like lying but it cannot be a social life as that is unique to humans." "Grief is unique to humans." Humans are unique like every other species. But for some, this is not enough. We have to be uniquely unique and isolated from every other species.
NeonR3D "Whether it is mourning I can not say, but it's certainly an interest in their dead" became "Rare footage: Wild elephants mourn their dead" Come on, you have to know why writing an idea/observation as a fact garners more views, attention, and notoriety.
Its definitely mourning, the way they move and hold their body is subdued and heavy looking and slow, instead of the regular powerful movement with purpose after coming in contact with the body.
I’ve read a number of books on animal cognition. It is the absolute height of arrogance to assume we are the only species who feel emotion (in a cognitive sense, not just the fight or flight response, for example). We all watch each other in our lives and from that watching recognise what the other is doing or feeling. Animals and is watching animals are no different.
Elephants are such sensitive and intelligent animals. Simply beautiful and amazing. Thank you so much for this upload. Kind regards, D.J. of ThreeDNature
We don't know if they mourn and feel sadness, loss, grief and sorrow the same way we do, but elephants and humans being mammals, we share a lot of similarities so it's still a possibility that many of their reactions and stimuli also has a certain degree of resemblance to ours.
Imagine, as a westerner, watching a Thai funeral, or an Indonesian funeral, or a indigenous Brazilian funeral. Watching people cry, pay their respects, and comfort each other. Now imagine doubting that they had emotions. 🐘 ❤️
Cows kind shows the same behaviour in the milk industry when their calf is taking away from them after birth. Stress and grief. its a bit concerning thinking about it. I think it makes the thought difficult of drinking the milk myself
Actually the elephant weren't just standing there , they're having a funeral they do that when any of the herd dies. They pay their respects and the morning and you leave the whole family and relatives and heard everybody shows up
They do mourn. You do not need words to be sad and grieve a loved one. For someone that works for nat Geo I really thought she would be smarter. Words and communication are not needed to validate that a being on planet earth does not feel the gravitation of sadness, loss and mourning. They may do it differently than us humans but that bond and love for one another is still there.
I was watching that primal episode where the mammoth dies and I wanted to see if it was actually a real thing, if elephants and mammoths have funerals. Really beautiful to see this
I don't know if you guys have ever heard about that Female Indian elephant who became carnivorous to humans after her child was killed, but if that's not mourning and psychotic grief I don't know what is...
That's a trait seen in humans as well, amazing. She went insane after her child was killed by humans and decided she wanted vengance on the whole species. I feel bad for her and her victims, oh and the baby elephant.
It's probably so depressing for them to have a death occur. They spend all their time accomplishing the only goal they've ever had, keeping moving, eating, and staying alive, but for some reason they cannot understand one day they each suddenly collapse and begin to rot into bones.
Elephant: We found water and food after the drought and we fended off hungry predators! Shurely we can survive now! other Elephant: *Falls to the ground becouse of illness* Elephant: fock!
I find that amazing that we humans arent the only species who mourn for the loss of our loved ones elephants are highly intelligent creatures who seem to understand that one of the herds members has died the elephant are behaving much like us humans do at a funeral coming to view the dead body and mourning the loss of their herd and showing sad emotions such as crying and touching the dead body
The video explicitly says that the professional person can't tell if they're mourning or not, whereas the title of the video says they're mourning with quote-unquote. I hope they communicate with each other better. I mean humans.
Bruh they were basically crying from there temples. Listen to what she said about it and imagine your an alien looking at a human being whose crying. Seems like the same thing to me 😳
I have considered that they are intrigued by what their insides look like. I can imagine this is how humans were when we first discovering our anatomy. As well as paying their respects to the dead.
There is such a thing as a healthy level of scientific caution and non interactive observation. Then ... there is human exceptionalism, excessive skepticism and extreme solipsism. The fact that many in the scientific community cannot entertain the idea that though many animals are very gifted problem solvers, social engineers and high architects with brains similar in sizes, functions and structures to our own, can experience emotions similar or comparable to humans is laughable. This isn't scientific caution, it's Cartesian dogma pushed to a point of complete ridiculousness.
it is not really rare bc some zoologist noted that in some cases, elephant also bury their relatives with colorful stuff like leaves, flowers even fruits. and yet they bury those with the remains.
I think despite how mentally advanced humans are, we will never fully understand the brains of other animals. We only perceive them by comparison to our own. I think if every living organism in the world has the drug in it that makes you dream, ( dimethaltriptamine) then everything has a soul. Everything can feel in its own way.
Lol -Similar brain structure to humans -Displays the same behavior as a human does to similar stimuli(death of close companion) -has a physiological response identical to human, in response to said similar stimuli(crying) Conclusion: "i can't say for sure if elephants really feel sadness because i can't ask them" Question: If your standard of evidence for emotions in animals, is the animal himself telling you how he feels, how can you 'say for sure' that elephants even feel physical pain?
we know animals feel physical pain from neuron response, some parts of brains amongst all species are near identical, im talking about the inner brain or "reptilian" brain, its as basic as you can get and is responsible for fight or flight response, reaction to physical harm, release of chemicals for positive stimulus and other neurological reactions pertaining to sensory input. Feeling is a core to sensory input and sure, its intensity and general strength may vary amongst species, but pain is consistent, physical pain i can say for certain is felt by most, if not all animals, because its a reaction to physical damage, and you don't want life threatening harm to elicit a positive response in an animal, and so, animals will innately avoid pain where possible. Psychological is a harder one to point out but i want to say something you may or may not have heard, you probably have... A neural network as complex as a brain, in all forms, can be unique to some degree and develop, even in animals, neural networks have variation in them, you can see it in MRI and microscopes, if all animals brains were made with the consistency of modern machines, then the neurons in their brains should light up exactly the same every time they get hurt in the same way as another of their species, and their reactions would never vary, but they can vary, and often do. As for me, can you say for certain that i, or your neighbour or family or a friend of yours, for certain, also feels real emotional or physical pain, or are just reaction because that's what we're "supposed to do" and these various examples don't actually feel anything? food for thought.
Remember you don’t have to be a elephant to be mourned by them an animal activists died and a year or two after he saved a heard that same heard went to his house for years after he died
Videos of their reaction when their family members die seem to look like mourning. Anyone who has lost a spouse or a child knows that overwhelming pain where it is just too much where you can't process but at the same time so painful it hurts to even exist. They seem to show that exact things where it is difficult not to recognize it if you have lived it. Not many animals do that. I've only seen it before with a couple of house pets of someone who past or fellow house pet, but strange to see in the wild.
It's called "mourning". The closest friends and family 'mourn' the most. This is a demonstration outside of 'other' species humans visiting a graveyard...!
I wonder if maybe the dead carcass emits a smell that they enjoy or if it smells bad to them. Also maybe theirs some sort of spiritual practice going on by standing around the body. Very cool video to watch!!
the maternal bond is powerful. I believe all empathy is simply an extension of maternal bond. social animals simply extend the feeling to others in the group, since they do depend on each other (as does baby and mother). it really is this simple! paternal bond is the same to a lesser degree, perhaps, but very similar, since the mother carried the baby in her womb. (there is no biological separation for 9 months, and this simply extends psychologically upon birth). a mother is literally caring for her own flesh and blood. babies, boys and girls, learn this from mama, therefore, males too share in this beautiful expression.
We humans need to get over the idea that we are the ONLY species that has emotions, that mourns the dead, that thinks, that is sentient. Just because they do not speak does not mean that they don’t feel the same way we do. It is so clear that elephants and many other animals mourn the exact same way us humans do.
We tend to forget we, as humans, are also animals; we share more similarities than differences with non-human animals. Emotion is one the most primal reactions. If we mourn and cry from emotional pain, it’s only logical non-human animals are capable of experiencing those same emotions just as strongly. People act like non-human animals having emotion is equivalent to them understanding calculus. Humans could do with some humbling.
Of course elephants mourn. For her to say they are very different to humans is rubbish. They have a very close knit family bond. Look at how the females in particular care for its infants. These elephants were not just smelling the body, they were touching it, caressing it, showing it the utmost respect and love.
They are definitely feeling emotional distress over the death. We can't expect animals to express themselves in exact same way we do, but for us to assume they don't mourn in their own way is ignorant of us. Of course animals have emotions, they just dont have the same expressive ways to display it as we do. Such great majestc creatures. What a world, all praise be to God for creating them and giving us eyes and understanding to appreciate such a creation.
Yeah, grief is a conclusion to jump to, but them going back over and over dispells the idea that they're only there to identify potential predators that could harm them, especially after two weeks!
So if they do mourn, would that suggest that they have some form of understanding about their mortality as if they value their life? That's pretty sentient actually.
+winged hussar that's only because you think of intelligence the wrong way
It's likely that they simply understand that they won't see that individual anymore, and feel sadness over that. They likely don't associate that with the value of their own lives. But that's just my hypothesis.
I read an article before that says that old elephants tend to stray away from their herds because they can feel their impending doom.
Elephants are very sentient creatures, their brains are very developed amongst the animal kingdom comparable with that of chimps and dolphins. Elephants can do many things that few animals can such as recognize themselves in the mirror, show high levels of empathy, have a degree of artistic creativity although it's not true that elephants can paint as many are led to believe as they are been guided secretly by their trainers. However, they can select favourite colours and exhibit greater abstract thinking and problem solving skills compared with other animals.
All animals are sentient beings
Why is so hard for others to believe that a non human species has an emotional reaction
IrishLass 77 because animals don't experience emotions the same way humans do. So saying it's a simple as 'mourning' or something similar means they are reacting the same way a human would, when we know that isn't true.
Jacob Dexter wat
Humans have a tendency to 'project' emotions on to other animals. We know other animals do not have the same emotional reactions, it is hard for us as a species to accept other animals may not feel the same way we do, or if they do we can't prove it yet
Because people are stupid.
but we, ourselves are animals, and how can we know they dont have some form of emotional reaction? different people from different cultures portray certain emotions differently, and it can vary between individuals too, also some people are more sensitive emotionally whilst others are more focused, but still feel, and then there are people who seemingly have no emotion at all. we cant tell whats really going on with a different networking within an animals mind, and we cant read their thoughts, but does that mean that, for certain, they cannot have a human-like emotional reaction internally? given that we ourselves are animals, i believe it is safe to say that some, if not all mammals and possibly various other animals, are capable of emotional thought amongst other things.
thank you for your time.
To me that fact that they do this in spite of the possible dangers it presents (disease,possible predation) shows that there has to be some sort of emotional response going on. If it was strictly just curiosity they would have evolved to avoid that risk. I doubt they stop and caress other dead animal corpses this way. In my opinion emotion is the one thing that can cause animals to disregard their own safety and act counter intuitively.
That's exaclty what I thought. How would they know about old age and dying? They possibly would assume a predator caused it since animals are instinctively aware from witnessing hunts for millions of years. I'd say it's all 3 grief, shock, and simple curiosity. Since they're in a herd, there would be less fear of predators letting them have a chance to observe the body.
Many of them knew this elephant personally. They can recognize themselves, and they recognize others
@@MrsMelissaRich so you think that elephants which are putting colorful flowers and leaves onto their dead "friends" are just curious
Sry for my english
I I I though that was a leaf, but that was the dead ones ear. It was dried like that because the elephant had been dead for 3 weeks
They actually do. There is an example of a Kenyan woman who was sleeping under a tree, who woke up to find elephants surrounding her and burying her with leaves and dirt because they thought she had passed away
elephants react to their own kind dying so differently than other animals do, they seem to have a much better understanding of death than most. Even other intelligent animals might try to coax a dead body to react or get up, but they seem to know thats not gonna happen, and they'll visit the body repeatedly, sometimes long after there's nothing left but bones, no other animals do that besides humans visiting gravesites.
Crows have funerals btw
This was such a deep comment and then I saw the pic and the name 😂
@@anothergamingchannel2656 😂
Well, humans created an idea of a place of eternal torment, so it’s no wonder non human animals might have a better grasp of death than us. Also, fun fact: What’s funny is, the pain you’d experience burning alive wouldn’t even happen if you’re dead, since your brain isn’t alive to sense the pain in the first place. The physical pain you experience is only because of your nervous system. Without a living brain, there’s zero pain. Period. End of story.
Rant over.
Humans aren't animals.
Seems like a funeral procession and a viewing of the dead. Very emotional response for a animal, never seen anything like it.
It's great to know that there are Beautiful People on TH-cam XO Cheers xo
Humana do it
Apparently they have rituals where every full moon they take baths and wave branches at the moon. Wonder if elephants have religion
@@mechadonia Who knows? They might. Or it could just be a ritual. We don't know how elephants interpret the world.
A few other species appear to have "funeral processions"...rhesus monkeys, chimpanzees, dolphins, rats, and a few species of bird including magpies and parrots/cockatoos (although cockatoos typically only display grief at the death of a human caretaker, they tend not to show these emotions with other members of their species in the wild).
Elephants not only mourn, they mourn everyone that they grow attached to emotionally, from humans to dogs to other elephants. If they loved it, they will not only mourn it, and mourn HARD, they will also create graves that they will visit and also have an emotional response to when they re-visit it at a later date.
Cows kind shows the same behaviour in the milk industry when their calf is taking away from them after birth. Stress and grief. its a bit concerning thinking about it. I think it makes the thought difficult of drinking the milk myself
It’s so beautiful how elephants value themselves as a species
Cows kind shows the same behaviour in the milk industry when their calf is taking away from them after birth. Stress and grief. its a bit concerning thinking about it. I think it makes the thought difficult of drinking the milk myself
@@andreasjonsson5071
Don’t worry. While cows are mammals, they aren’t super smart or anything. Even dogs outsmart them. From everything we can tell, they have no self-awareness.
Hmm, yea I see you point. But it still feels strange even though they might not be as smart as dog. Maybe its not the intelligence that makes it bothering@@genghisn7
A good zoologist knows that you have to be careful about jumping to conclusions, especially since most of us want to humanize other animals behavior, however I'd say its safe to say that this body has brought about emotion in the elephants. They likely understand that they will never see this individual again. Chimpanzees are also capable of mourning, so I'd say this is a pretty solid hypothesis.
I agree.
You can see almost the same behavior in a lot of intelligent and group-oriented species, like wolves and orcas, and even 'dumb' animals will sometimes behave in a similar fashion. Humans don't give animals the credit they deserve. Just because they don't use tools or speak our language does not mean that they are stupid or void of emotion.
I wonder how Dolphins react to similar things, be interesting to see that and fully agree, I fully agree we shouldn't think of them as equal to use, that's not to say they're dumb or in anyway less intelligent or deserving of compassion in anyway as things are always relative anyway.
Rats are an incredibly intelligent form of rodents, they actually eat their dead ones as far as I am aware, the cannibals of the rodent world, again as far as I know or have heard.
Jeremy Smith dolphins are known to carry a dead calf for a few days after it has died, and will fiercely defend a dead calf from predators, even if they know it is dead
Wow I really did not know that, though to be fair I've never really known much about them, though to be fair that doesn't surprise me.
They are clearly mourning. This is heartbreaking
I learned from a Scientist at the Baltimore zoo that Elephants have 50x the memory capacity that a Human does. They remember every moment, of every second of the day from the time they are born, til the time they pass. They remember their own birth. They also have a resonating chamber to communicate. This resonating sound can be heard by other Elephants up to 15 miles away. Elephants being as smart as they are, also Love unlike any other Animal in the Kingdom. Some are even said to pass away from being so heartbroken. Which would mean they feel deep emotions. Seeing them Mourn is just another sign of how intelligent these beautiful Animals are. I think there's so much that Humans can learn from them. I'd be interested to see a Dolphin and Elephant in the same area, and see how they react to eachother. They are both clearly very intelligent , so it wouldn't be far fetched to see if they establish some sort of relationship.
Buffalo Titan it’s quite interesting to see how much an elephant remembers. They will find the body of there matriarch who could have died years ago and still do things similar to what happen in this video. They will cover the dead in dirt and sticks, they really are amazing creatures, and show a much wider span of emotions then we normally associate with animals other than humans
@@isolemnlysweariamuptonogoo3350 It's mystical in a way.
Very interesting.
Humans could also do that if they keep a journal 📔 for long enough.
Of course it's mourning, elephants are highly intelligent, sentient animals with emotios.
All animals are sentient
@@michaelgamerytmj677 Yes, but I think he means that elephants in particular are more complex and intelligent when compared to other animals.
@@michaelgamerytmj677 false
@Calm Mango there's a difference between consciousness and sentience
@@michaelgamerytmj677 Bivalves, coral, and sponges are not sentient.
Elephants literally crying in front of their dead grandmas and they be like
"Idk if they're mourning"
The experts know a lot, and people generally want to humanise everything. There’s a lot of animal behaviour that initially looks human, but turns out not to be. For example, when big cats in captivity lose their companion they often really do look like they are experiencing grief. But if you provide them with another companion they immediately stop and return to normal. It’s probably the stress of the pack of social interaction that is distressing them.
@@HkFinn83You could say the exact same thing about humans, when humans are isolated&lonely, they may miss their friends and become suicidal but if they're introduced to a new group of friends, suddenly they'll get on with life...
There's difference between humanising animals and pretending like certain emotions are exclusive to humans.
Since forever, experts and even philisophers were keen on defying what made humans unique to other species. Which is a lot. But in that process, we always declined anything that made animals like us. "They communicate using complex signals and movement but it cannot be a language because language is unique to humans." "They show emotions and complex social behaviours like lying but it cannot be a social life as that is unique to humans." "Grief is unique to humans." Humans are unique like every other species. But for some, this is not enough. We have to be uniquely unique and isolated from every other species.
@@RyokoYoichi i guess it's kinda scary to know that we're no different from the animals we hurt as we please
@@gabrielegenota1480 I mean, it's not not like we don't hurt each other.
Expert: Can't say if it's mourning
National Geographic: Elephants mourn their dead
Well she did say that the little evidence they had was supporting that hypothesis.
NeonR3D Who cares? It isn't a fact that they're mourning.
+zunedog31 So? Nobody knows what the facts are here. We do have a leading hypothesis though: that they're mourning.
it says "Mourn" as in you're "smart"
NeonR3D "Whether it is mourning I can not say, but it's certainly an interest in their dead"
became
"Rare footage: Wild elephants mourn their dead"
Come on, you have to know why writing an idea/observation as a fact garners more views, attention, and notoriety.
Poor matriarch She was a Wonder full grandmother aunt sister mother and a good Leader She Was a good Elephant
Its definitely mourning, the way they move and hold their body is subdued and heavy looking and slow, instead of the regular powerful movement with purpose after coming in contact with the body.
I’ve read a number of books on animal cognition. It is the absolute height of arrogance to assume we are the only species who feel emotion (in a cognitive sense, not just the fight or flight response, for example). We all watch each other in our lives and from that watching recognise what the other is doing or feeling. Animals and is watching animals are no different.
0:53 I'm using headphones and I literally felt the mosquito
Ayooo 😂😂😂
😂😂😂
Oh my god I thought a mosquito is flying around me and you helped me to know that its in the video 💀
This is why i have high respect with elephants i love them.
Elephants are such sensitive and intelligent animals. Simply beautiful and amazing. Thank you so much for this upload. Kind regards, D.J. of ThreeDNature
The elephant is literally crying over their dead grandma. Leave them alone. They’re having a funeral
Didn’t they say the elephant wasn’t related to them?
the way the elephant stops in its tracks upon realizing what it's walking past at 2:30 tells me all I need to know personally
Yes
We don't know if they mourn and feel sadness, loss, grief and sorrow the same way we do, but elephants and humans being mammals, we share a lot of similarities so it's still a possibility that many of their reactions and stimuli also has a certain degree of resemblance to ours.
Elephants are so cool
What beautiful creatures
Elephants pass the "mirror test". That's why they're interested in a dead elephant carcass. They're self-aware. They know they're going to die too.
ahhh no, their bonds are WAY stronger than any human
They are obviously mourning. Humans lack of empathy for other animals never ceases to amaze me.
You can see that elephant at 1:55 crying
They cry, it's called crying
This fascinates me. And I believe this is true, respect, mourning all those emotions. 🙏🏾 LIFE
Imagine, as a westerner, watching a Thai funeral, or an Indonesian funeral, or a indigenous Brazilian funeral. Watching people cry, pay their respects, and comfort each other. Now imagine doubting that they had emotions. 🐘 ❤️
That wasn't so long ago
Cows kind shows the same behaviour in the milk industry when their calf is taking away from them after birth. Stress and grief. its a bit concerning thinking about it. I think it makes the thought difficult of drinking the milk myself
An Elephant never forgets where the bones are buried. ❤️
Magnificent creatures.
This is very heartwarming.
Actually the elephant weren't just standing there , they're having a funeral they do that when any of the herd dies. They pay their respects and the morning and you leave the whole family and relatives and heard everybody shows up
They do mourn. You do not need words to be sad and grieve a loved one. For someone that works for nat Geo I really thought she would be smarter. Words and communication are not needed to validate that a being on planet earth does not feel the gravitation of sadness, loss and mourning. They may do it differently than us humans but that bond and love for one another is still there.
This is a freakin funeral procession. Unreal.
I was watching that primal episode where the mammoth dies and I wanted to see if it was actually a real thing, if elephants and mammoths have funerals. Really beautiful to see this
The animation?
"do you know this guy ?"
"oh shit ! that's my old friend ! oh fuck why ?? why????"
" i'm sorry man..."
I don't know if you guys have ever heard about that Female Indian elephant who became carnivorous to humans after her child was killed, but if that's not mourning and psychotic grief I don't know what is...
Source? I would like to read it. Very interesting.
www.themarysue.com/rogue-elephant-ate-human-flesh/ check the video here from animal planet!
Werdxp Woah thanks. So scary!!!!
That's a trait seen in humans as well, amazing. She went insane after her child was killed by humans and decided she wanted vengance on the whole species. I feel bad for her and her victims, oh and the baby elephant.
I think we vastly underestimate our fellow beings. We're not so different
This makes me believe in the existence of the soul and the After life.
It's probably so depressing for them to have a death occur. They spend all their time accomplishing the only goal they've ever had, keeping moving, eating, and staying alive, but for some reason they cannot understand one day they each suddenly collapse and begin to rot into bones.
Elephant: We found water and food after the drought and we fended off hungry predators! Shurely we can survive now!
other Elephant: *Falls to the ground becouse of illness*
Elephant: fock!
well Elephants have excellent memory...maybe they are recalling that particular event???
Mary Jane Omg also I believe it elephants have excellent memory and elephants have long memory and have very tight connection each other..
Why can't scientist just admit that these animals are smart enough to hurt, mourn, and miss their own?
Indeed
Why can’t you understand that just because you want something to be true doesn’t mean it is?
@@HarshDude126 why can’t you understand humans aren’t the only creature that’s intelligent
what. is on the elephants back at 2:45 ? is it a tracker?
They are showing their love and respect
Standing there was their moment of silence. ❤
I find that amazing that we humans arent the only species who mourn for the loss of our loved ones elephants are highly intelligent creatures who seem to understand that one of the herds members has died the elephant are behaving much like us humans do at a funeral coming to view the dead body and mourning the loss of their herd and showing sad emotions such as crying and touching the dead body
The video explicitly says that the professional person can't tell if they're mourning or not, whereas the title of the video says they're mourning with quote-unquote. I hope they communicate with each other better. I mean humans.
ryo0ka it’s in inverted commas
Wow thank you so much
So beautiful, elephant so wonderful❤
Of course they mourn! 😖 *Slaps with tusk*🐘
Bruh they were basically crying from there temples. Listen to what she said about it and imagine your an alien looking at a human being whose crying. Seems like the same thing to me 😳
I have considered that they are intrigued by what their insides look like. I can imagine this is how humans were when we first discovering our anatomy.
As well as paying their respects to the dead.
There is such a thing as a healthy level of scientific caution and non interactive observation. Then ... there is human exceptionalism, excessive skepticism and extreme solipsism. The fact that many in the scientific community cannot entertain the idea that though many animals are very gifted problem solvers, social engineers and high architects with brains similar in sizes, functions and structures to our own, can experience emotions similar or comparable to humans is laughable.
This isn't scientific caution, it's Cartesian dogma pushed to a point of complete ridiculousness.
BRAVO
Based
W
Thank you Sir, finally a Comment that isn't dumb as Rock.
I like to imagine that it’s mourning, especially since those glands release when the elephant experiences strong emotions
it is not really rare bc some zoologist noted that in some cases, elephant also bury their relatives with colorful stuff like leaves, flowers even fruits. and yet they bury those with the remains.
I think despite how mentally advanced humans are, we will never fully understand the brains of other animals. We only perceive them by comparison to our own. I think if every living organism in the world has the drug in it that makes you dream, ( dimethaltriptamine) then everything has a soul. Everything can feel in its own way.
Sri Ganesh please protect these beautiful animals
Lol
-Similar brain structure to humans
-Displays the same behavior as a human does to similar stimuli(death of close companion)
-has a physiological response identical to human, in response to said similar stimuli(crying)
Conclusion:
"i can't say for sure if elephants really feel sadness because i can't ask them"
Question:
If your standard of evidence for emotions in animals, is the animal himself telling you how he feels, how can you 'say for sure' that elephants even feel physical pain?
we know animals feel physical pain from neuron response, some parts of brains amongst all species are near identical, im talking about the inner brain or "reptilian" brain, its as basic as you can get and is responsible for fight or flight response, reaction to physical harm, release of chemicals for positive stimulus and other neurological reactions pertaining to sensory input. Feeling is a core to sensory input and sure, its intensity and general strength may vary amongst species, but pain is consistent, physical pain i can say for certain is felt by most, if not all animals, because its a reaction to physical damage, and you don't want life threatening harm to elicit a positive response in an animal, and so, animals will innately avoid pain where possible.
Psychological is a harder one to point out but i want to say something you may or may not have heard, you probably have...
A neural network as complex as a brain, in all forms, can be unique to some degree and develop, even in animals, neural networks have variation in them, you can see it in MRI and microscopes, if all animals brains were made with the consistency of modern machines, then the neurons in their brains should light up exactly the same every time they get hurt in the same way as another of their species, and their reactions would never vary, but they can vary, and often do.
As for me, can you say for certain that i, or your neighbour or family or a friend of yours, for certain, also feels real emotional or physical pain, or are just reaction because that's what we're "supposed to do" and these various examples don't actually feel anything? food for thought.
My heart skipped a beat when I heard that fly at 0:54
Rip to those elephants who lost there lives
We should all aspire to be as good to one another as elephants are to each other
Remember you don’t have to be a elephant to be mourned by them an animal activists died and a year or two after he saved a heard that same heard went to his house for years after he died
No one:
Absolutely no one:
0:54 Fly: *NOOYM*
As fellow social creatures, it's not hard to see the similarities.
Videos of their reaction when their family members die seem to look like mourning. Anyone who has lost a spouse or a child knows that overwhelming pain where it is just too much where you can't process but at the same time so painful it hurts to even exist. They seem to show that exact things where it is difficult not to recognize it if you have lived it. Not many animals do that. I've only seen it before with a couple of house pets of someone who past or fellow house pet, but strange to see in the wild.
Team National Geographic, Please give me permission to use this footage in my TH-cam video. Please don't give copyright 🙏
Even Elephants have compassion for their own....So Humans need to think about this before killing one!
I try to convince my philosopher husband to join me for my animals documentary project. To study elephants is like reading the Bhagavad-Gita ^^
Aww..... I want to give that elephant A BIIIIGGG HUUUG !
I love elephants!
maybe they were trying to understand existence
*Dan Howell screaming in the distance*
It's called "mourning". The closest friends and family 'mourn' the most. This is a demonstration outside of 'other' species humans visiting a graveyard...!
surely they have at least a modest understanding of their own mortality. that's something to marvel over
I’d say it’s mourning & paying respect or acknowledging the passing of a fellow-elephant... remarkable video
I wonder if maybe the dead carcass emits a smell that they enjoy or if it smells bad to them. Also maybe theirs some sort of spiritual practice going on by standing around the body. Very cool video to watch!!
I saw the yellow rectangle and kept thinking, “What is it about those branches?”
I like to think that if they could talk to us, they'd have the same questions about life that we do.
It’s an elephant au
I grew up heading cattle and i used to see them doing the same thing bellowing ,sniffing, jumping some will even fight it was like funeral ritual
Sometimes elephants that lose their mother young they could mourn so hard that they won’t play with the other baby elephants!
the maternal bond is powerful. I believe all empathy is simply an extension of maternal bond. social animals simply extend the feeling to others in the group, since they do depend on each other (as does baby and mother). it really is this simple! paternal bond is the same to a lesser degree, perhaps, but very similar, since the mother carried the baby in her womb. (there is no biological separation for 9 months, and this simply extends psychologically upon birth). a mother is literally caring for her own flesh and blood. babies, boys and girls, learn this from mama, therefore, males too share in this beautiful expression.
Is that the mourners or the forensics?
Amazing
it its exactly how the mammoths did it in Primal. As fantastical the show gets, they are accurate about these kind of details
I love Primal, one of Genndy’s masterpiece
We humans need to get over the idea that we are the ONLY species that has emotions, that mourns the dead, that thinks, that is sentient. Just because they do not speak does not mean that they don’t feel the same way we do. It is so clear that elephants and many other animals mourn the exact same way us humans do.
Oh my God.When he cried I cried😭😭
We tend to forget we, as humans, are also animals; we share more similarities than differences with non-human animals. Emotion is one the most primal reactions. If we mourn and cry from emotional pain, it’s only logical non-human animals are capable of experiencing those same emotions just as strongly. People act like non-human animals having emotion is equivalent to them understanding calculus. Humans could do with some humbling.
Such intelligent and curious creatures... Rarely do you find Braun AND Brain in one.
why in the title are there quotation marks around the word "mourn"??? useless....
Tell me animals don't have souls if they can grieve their dead. They do, change my mind.
Have you asked them if they were grieving, or maybe they were just curious?
@@stevemcintosh6711wrong answer
pretty obvious they recognize their own species dead
i'm not crying YOU'RE CRYING
Of course elephants mourn. For her to say they are very different to humans is rubbish. They have a very close knit family bond. Look at how the females in particular care for its infants. These elephants were not just smelling the body, they were touching it, caressing it, showing it the utmost respect and love.
They are definitely feeling emotional distress over the death. We can't expect animals to express themselves in exact same way we do, but for us to assume they don't mourn in their own way is ignorant of us. Of course animals have emotions, they just dont have the same expressive ways to display it as we do.
Such great majestc creatures. What a world, all praise be to God for creating them and giving us eyes and understanding to appreciate such a creation.
You should see what hippos do. It's amazing. There's a scene in the Gustav crocodile documentary.
We are no different to elephants or any animals life is all one energy of consciousness we share grief compassion
Yeah, grief is a conclusion to jump to, but them going back over and over dispells the idea that they're only there to identify potential predators that could harm them, especially after two weeks!
This is amazing