Bison mourn their dead.

Tobi · #1 24-03-2013, 08:55 PM

A young Bison calf, injured, succumbed to the Russian winter, and died.
Wolves came to eat the carcasse.
Protective of the body of their young one, the herd of Bison chased the wolves away, and proceeded to gather round, sniffing and nuzzling at the calf's body for some time. This apparently is typical of Bison, who mourn their dead.

(from "Wolves in Chernobyl Dead Zone")

http://youtu.be/y0wuc8SsMMI

(27:00 to 28:25)

WhiteWarrior · #2 24-03-2013, 10:01 PM

Incidentally, elephants are well known for mourning their dead even after they have been reduced to skeletons, some times carrying a bone of a passed on friend for many miles.

Tobi · #3 24-03-2013, 11:39 PM

Yes they do. Their emotions must obviously be very deep.

knightofalbion · #4 25-03-2013, 09:23 AM

They mourn their dead as do many species, from elephants to chimps to magpies.
Something indicative of love, empathy, family/brotherhood, value of life and a form of animal spirituality.

'We' may like to think 'we' humans have a monopoly on feeling and emotion - makes abusing the Animal Kingdom for food, skin clothing, 'sport' and vivisection experimentation that much more palatable - but we clearly don't. (You don't have to look any further than the dog at your feet to see that it is so.)

Reverence for all living things!

Tobi · #5 25-03-2013, 01:02 PM

When my dog passed over last summer, she left a friend behind. A neighbour's dog. They were very close for 10 years, since she first came to live with me. He mourned hard. He lay on the stone outside his farm and hardly moved. I went to visit him every day. After about a month he suddenly came out of it and is fine now. His caretakers said he was getting old and they thought he had dementia (though he shows no sign of such things now, and hadn't before my dog passed)
I said maybe he was grieving. But they were skeptical.
I think they might wonder now, as he is now perfectly fine.

LPC · #6 25-03-2013, 04:47 PM

So many types of animal mourn the passing over of others. It is another sign (amongst many) of the spirituality of animals. Thank you for such a good thread, Tobi!

Sometimes, mourning goes beyond "own species". The story of Greyfriars Bobby (please Google if interested) always comes to mind. 14 years by his caretaker's grave! Now that's what I call dedication!

Tobi · #7 25-03-2013, 10:24 PM

Yes, LPC, there have been quite a few instances like that. The story of Hachiko (the Japanese dog whose caretaker always used to come home from work at a certain time to the local station, and the dog would always be there to greet him. The man passed over, and every day that dog went to the station hoping to meet him for 10 years.)
There was another instance I read of recently too about a dog who kept going to sleep on its deceased caretaker's grave, every night. The locals fed it. I think that was in China...?