Recent observations and studies suggest that animals may experience grief similar to humans when they lose a companion. The article explores various examples of animals displaying behaviors associated with grief, such as carrying the bodies of their dead, visiting graves, and exhibiting prolonged periods of sadness.
Grief has long been thought to be a human trait, but other animals – from killer whales to crows – also appear to suffer loss when a companion dies.The orca, known as Tahlequah, was seen pushing the body of her dead newborn calf for 17 days, continually retrieving it and preventing it from sinking – an incredible feat given the fact that killer whales can travel an average of 120km (75 miles) a day.
There are also reports of other animals displaying signs of grief, such as chimpanzees carrying the bodies of their stillborn infants, dolphins mourning the loss of their calves, and elephants grieving over the death of their companions. Some animals even appear to display ritualistic behaviours after a death, similarly to how humans would hold a funeral. Elephants are known to visit the graves of their companions, touching and stroking their bones, and standing for long periods beside the skeleton in a manner akin to a vigil. Chimpanzees are also known to carry the bodies of their dead, and some birds have been observed building small cairns of twigs and leaves around the bodies of their fallen companions. Whether these behaviours truly count as grief depends largely on how you define the concept – a philosophical question that is hotly debated. In a recent article, Millar says that unlike sadness, which is usually fleeting, grief tends to be protracted, lasting for months or years. Another important element of grief is that it also seems to encompass many different emotions. 'You might feel sadness, but perhaps also other emotions too like anger or even hope,' says Millar. 'Even if you explicitly know that someone has died, there might be another sense in which the loss hasn't yet been integrated into your world and into your habitual patterns of behaviour and thought,' says Millar. 'So you might want to lay out a plate for them on the table, or you might still anticipate the sound of their car coming into the drive at 6pm, or that they'll be sitting on their favourite sofa and so on. In some sense you expect them to be there, even though you know that that person has died.' Some philosophers argue that, while some animals undoubtedly feel distress after losing a companion, true grief requires further cognitive capabilities that animals lack. These include the ability to understand the permanence of death, and a recognition that the individual will not be present for future events and milestones in your life. 'I don't think all human grievers grapple with the nature of mortality, or project themselves to a really distant future as part of their grief. Young children who suffer a bereavement are probably not able to fully comprehend their loss at that stage, but it would seem wrong to say that their grief is lesser.' In her article, Millar defines grief as more about learning in a more practical sense how to live in a radically changed world. She believes that this practical process of adaptation is something that could be open to animals as well, given that it doesn't require highly cognitive, intellectual forms of understanding. Ultimately, Millar believes that many animals are capable of feeling grief. 'I think that other animals can share their lives with one another in quite a rich way and their whole patterns of behaviour can come to hinge upon that other animal,' says Millar. So when their companion dies, they too are forced to undergo this kind of protracted process of comprehension and relearning of their world.
SCIENCE PHILOSOPHY ANIMALS GRIEF BEHAVIOR SCIENCE PHILOSOPHY DEATH LOSS
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