found two fresh cuts in her cheek and at the top of her mouth.
Both seemed to have occurred after death, which was judged natural due to old age. “We think possibly
[Malasso] tried to lift her, because he has these long tusks,” says Goldenberg, who works at the Smithsonian
Conservation Biology Institute. Another elephant to linger was a 10-year-old named Noor. She was
Victoria’s youngest daughter, and when she finally plodded away, the temporal glands on each side of her
head were streaming liquid: a reaction linked to stress, fear and aggression.
The researchers’ observations of what happened in the days and weeks after Victoria died – some of the first
to document how wild elephants respond to loss over time – are described in a new review paper that
examines more than 30 reports of elephant reactions to death.
In Thailand, the animals are held in high regard
(AFP)The scientists do not conclude from these accounts that elephants mourn, an activity that is often attributed
to the species. But their response has a common thread, the authors say. When an elephant falls, the loss is
acknowledged and investigated by other elephants, even those unrelated to the deceased. Death means
something to elephants, in other words – possibly something emotional.
“We don’t know what’s going on in their heads,” says Goldenberg, a co-author of the paper, which was
published in a special, death-focused issue of the journal Primates. “But we do know that they’re constantly
updating social information about each other. And their place in the social network relates to how they use
the landscape, how they survive, how they reproduce.”
The day after Victoria’s death, many of the same elephants were back. And over the next three weeks, the
researchers observed members of five families interacting with Victoria’s corpse. Some would have known
Victoria by scent, if not sight, but many more would have been strangers. If this had been a wake, it would
have been well-attended.
Certainly, it’s sad. But this is what we would hope for, that they can live out their lives and die peacefully,
without being hunted
Some elephants touched Victoria’s body with their trunks, while others tried to lift her stiffened ears with
their feet. Occasionally, the elephants performed dominance behaviours that scientists say are more
typically seen around restricted resources like shady groves, cooling mud wallows or treasured fruit trees.
This may suggest that the carcass wasn’t just a point of interest, but something of value – something to