According to legend, elephants are animals that feel their own death approach. And when the elephant felt that his days were about to end, he went to a specific place to die between his loved ones – in the elephant cemetery. But do they really exist? Livescience.com information portal I found it In the problem.
In Africa and other areas, over time, they actually find large elephant clusters still in relatively small areas. However, in these rare cases, death is associated with drought, poaching, geological or flowering of toxic algae when watering – they can poison hundreds of animals at the same time.
No theory confirms that such cemeteries appear are the result of an intentional journey of elephants. Obviously why such a theory can become a part of public culture, but this is nothing more than a legend supported by locals and hunters.
However, this does not mean that elephants do not have an understanding or emotional experience about death. Scientific works in 2024 recorded five cases in India, when Asian elephants were actually buried in ditches on different tea plantations. Only the legs of the animals are trapped on the ground.
According to scientists, burial sites are not chosen by accident. The ditches allow mature elephants to be placed in the depths of the dead, and then cover their bodies with the earth. They are buried physically, without using tools. In addition, the elderly of the villages in India (North Bengal) are aware of the elephant funeral and accept them is obvious. Similar scenarios have been observed between African elephants – they escorted relatives on the last journey, covering them with branches and leaves.
Although the memorable thing is that other explanations of these rituals can exist. Scientists cannot draw any conclusions about them without watching the funeral of their own eyes. At the same time, elephants show signs of other practices related to death. For example, Asian elephants for a long time wearing dead and lined up in a memorial service for the dead members of the guitar. Some scientific articles also acknowledge the tension and anxiety in elephants if they are next to relatives who die or die. Sometimes they even roared from the dead – perhaps this can be considered a kind of grief.
Finally, experts know the cases when elephants arrive at the dead of relatives and interact with their remains, touch and sniff bones. For example, African elephants, if they show them the bones of many animals, are more interested in the turtles and the ivory of their elephants. Therefore, elephants may recognize their appearance even after dying.