Researchers study YouTube videos to learn more about how wild elephants react to death

Bob Yirka is a writer for Phys.org.

A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science analyzed videos uploaded by amateur elephant enthusiasts to learn more about how the animals respond when one of their herd members dies. Their paper was published in the journal.

Evidence shows that some animals, such as apes and dolphins, respond to the death of a member of their group. The researchers noted that little research has been done to learn more about how elephants respond when one of their own passes away. Due to its rarity, it is difficult to capture video evidence of elephants reacting to death. Time constraints make it difficult for researchers to follow elephants in the wild until one of them dies. The researchers guessed that others have witnessed such events by accident and that many of them may have recorded the action using their phone and posted it on social media.

To find out if that was the case, the researchers conducted a large number of YouTube searches using terms such as "elephant death", and they found 24 videos that feature elephants reacting to the death of one of their herd members.

The researchers found that touching the corpse was the most common reaction. They were also sniffing. Touching was limited to the face or ears. The researchers noted that members of the elephant group produced different types of noise when they died.

The researchers suggest that elephants notice when one of their members dies, and that they mourn their dead offspring. Mothers were seen carrying their dead calf for several days after it died.

More information: Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel et al, Viewing the rare through public lenses: insights into dead calf carrying and other thanatological responses in Asian elephants using YouTube videos, Royal Society Open Science (2022). DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211740 Journal information: Royal Society Open Science

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