Asian elephants bury dead calves and cry – 03/01/2024 – Science
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Asian elephants bury their dead calves and cry loudly, according to a study by Indian researchers. The work suggests behaviors similar to human funeral rituals.
Researchers identified five sites in northern Bengal, India, where Asian elephants buried dead calves in 2022 and 2023, according to the study published this week in the Journal of Threatened Taxa.
The five cubs — aged less than three months to a year — died due to organ failure.
In each case, scientists observed that the group carried the dead calf by its trunk and paws before burying it lying down.
On one occasion, the group emitted loud trumpets around the cub lying on the ground, according to the study authors.
The study indicates that only puppies are buried in this way, as transporting dead adults is “not possible” due to their size and weight.
Authors Parveen Kaswan and Akashdeep Roy said their research revealed “no direct human intervention” in the burial of each of the five elephants.
In the land where they were buried there were explicit markings of 15 to 20 elephants.
The elephants buried their calves in the irrigation canals of tea plantations, hundreds of meters from areas inhabited by humans.
Elephants are known for their social and cooperative behavior, but calf burial has only been briefly studied among African elephants.
The phenomenon had not yet been explored among its Asian cousins, the study indicates.
Although it is not new for wild elephants in Africa and Asia to visit the remains of their adult counterparts during different stages of decomposition, this study revealed different behaviors.
In all five cases, the group “left the site 40 minutes after the burial” and avoided returning to the area, using parallel migration routes.
Asian elephants are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s list of threatened species.
About 26,000 are expected to live in the wild, especially in India, and some in Southeast Asia, according to estimates.
In the wild, outside of captivity, elephants live, on average, between 60 and 70 years.
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