Animals in mourning
ALBATROSSES
Laysan albatrosses form lifelong, monogamous pair bonds that are cemented with elaborate courtship dances. When one member of the partnership dies, the surviving bird will wait one to two years before even starting to look for a new mate, going through what has been described as a mourning period.
GIRAFFES
In 2011, scientists observed a lone Thornicroft’s giraffe mother standing guard over her dead infant. This is a decidedly unusual behaviour for giraffes, as they rarely remain stationary for long, and females in particular spend almost all their time with others. The mother stayed still, alone, and not
eating for two hours before finally moving on. Similar behaviour towards dead infants has been reported in other giraffe species, though not towards unrelated dead giraffes.
DOLPHINS
In 2012, a tour boat operator filmed an adult Risso’s dolphin carrying a dead and badly decayed calf on its back. The adult repeatedly swam away from and then back to the corpse, touching it and swimming in circles underneath it. The
DINGOES
dolphin then pushed the calf away from the watching boat and out to sea. There have been numerous other reports of dolphins touching, carrying and staying close to dead calves, even when at advanced stages of decomposition.
In 2008, a mother dingo was observed after the death of one of her five pups. The remaining littermates seemed to sense a change in the pup as it was dead and dying, treating their sibling in a subdued manner, refraining from their normal nipping and biting. The mother then moved the dead pup up to four times over a two-day period, gently moving it from place to place, seemingly in an effort to keep it near to the family.