Elephants were seen burying their dead for the first time

We already knew quite a few funeral rites known among animals: that of elephants burying their dead is extremely rare. Details from Hervé Poirier.

Hervé Poirier, editor-in-chief of the scientific magazine Epsiloon, speaks to us today of a very strange testimony.

franceinfo: We saw elephants burying their dead for the first time. Explain to us…

Hervé Poirier: It’s very disturbing. Very touching, even. Five cases have just been documented by an Indian researcher and a forest service official in northern Bengal. It happened in the plains where tea is grown.

Baby elephants died naturally, from illness or accidents – an autopsy was carried out afterwards. In all five cases, their bodies were transported by the herd over a long distance to a place far from homes. He was put in a hole, on his back, with his head, trunk and body buried, with his legs sticking out of the earth. Examination of the bodies suggests that the baby elephant was placed there delicately, grasped by the legs.

The footprints on the ground indicate a combined effort by the herd to level the ground around the body. Loud, long trumpetings were sometimes heard, lasting almost an hour. In some cases, the herd returned to the location later. They then carefully avoided it, taking parallel routes. In short, this is the first detailed description of what appears to be a methodical and deliberate animal burial.

We have never observed such behavior before?

No. We know of some funeral rites among large mammals. Primates who carry their dead babies for several days. Or orca mothers who keep their deceased calves on the surface of the water. Only a few rare cases of burials have already been mentioned for the African elephant, but never in such a precise or documented manner.

This rite ultimately seems quite close to human funerals?

The mental and emotional lives of elephants remain largely mysterious. We know that it is one of the rare animals to possess, like us, so-called “spindle” neurons, which play a key role in the processing of emotions, empathy, and self-awareness. They also have a large seahorse, which gives them their famous memory.

In short, they are equipped to feel the pain of losing a loved one like us. We had already seen elephants, faced with the death of a loved one, stay close to the body, touch it, try to pick it up, even return later near the corpse. Contrary to myth, elephants do not have a cemetery. But, yes, like us, they have graves…