Elephants may pay homage to dead relatives - life - 26...
Rated • 1 review • animals • newscientist.com
Elephants may pay homage to the bones of dead relatives in their home ranges, a study of the creatures' responses to skulls and ivory suggests.
Humans apart, only a few animals show any interest in their own dead. Chimpanzees show prolonged and complex behaviours towards a dead social partner - but abandon them once the carcass starts decomposing. But lions, for example, might sniff or lick a dead member of its own species before proceeding to devour the body.
African elephants have been observed to become highly agitated when they come across the bodies of their own, and they have been seen to pay great attention to the skull and ivory of long-dead elephants.
