WEDNESDAY 4 MARCH 2020LARGER THAN LIFE
Do elephants really mourn when one of their own dies? We have only
just scratched the surface of how emotionally intelligent these
majestic creatures are, writes Jason Bittel
Living with death: how do the animals react to loss? (Reuters)
In Kenya, there’s a spot on the banks of the Ewaso Ng’iro River where elephants like to congregate. Tall
acacia trees provide shade for naps, and doum palms supply date-like fruits that the animals scarf up by the
trunk-full. It was in this place that Victoria, a 55-year-old matriarch well-known to scientists, drew her last
breaths in June 2013. But that was not the end of Victoria’s story.
Several elephants huddled around the body, recalles ecologist Shifra Goldenberg, who was observing the
animals with colleagues that day. She noticed that Malasso, a 14-year-old bull, was one of the last to leave.
Victoria was his mother. Later, when Goldenberg and other researchers examined Victoria’s body, they