Dozens of animal species show clear behavioral responses to death, but a smaller group displays what looks remarkably like grief. Elephants, chimpanzees, orcas, dolphins, corvids (crows and magpies), gorillas, giraffes, dogs, and cats have all been documented engaging in prolonged, emotionally charged responses to dead companions. Scientists who study these behaviors, working in a field called comparative thanatology, have found two broad patterns: some animals become distressed and withdrawn, while others actively attend to the body through touching, carrying, guarding, or vocalizing.
Elephants and Their Dead
Elephants are probably the most famous mourners in the animal kingdom, and the evidence backs up their reputation. They approach and touch carcasses at every stage of decay, from freshly dead bodies to sun-bleached bones scattered across the landscape. Field researchers have documented elephants visiting and revisiting the same carcass over days, engaging in extensive investigative behavior: sniffing, nudging with their trunks, and standing still for long stretches near the remains.
What makes elephant responses especially striking is their breadth. Unlike most animals, elephants show interest in their dead regardless of how close the relationship was during life. They don’t just mourn their own calves or close companions. They investigate the remains of unrelated elephants too. Observers have also noted temporal gland streaming, a visible secretion from glands near their eyes that’s associated with strong emotional arousal, along with heightened social interactions among elephants gathered near a body. Herd members appear to become more tactile and communicative with each other in the presence of death.
Primates Carry and Care for the Dead
Across the primate family, the most consistent grief behavior is mothers continuing to carry and care for dead infants. This has been documented in chimpanzees, mountain gorillas, baboons, macaques, capuchin monkeys, and geladas, among others. Mothers will hold, groom, and transport a dead infant’s body for days, sometimes attempting to nurse it even as the corpse visibly decomposes.
One detailed observation of a wild snub-nosed monkey in China captured the full arc of this behavior. After her juvenile died in a fall, the mother transported and cared for the corpse for four days. She held the body against her breast as if breastfeeding, draped it over branches while she rested, and at one point laid leaves on top of it. Other young monkeys in the group approached and touched the body, and some were seen embracing each other while watching from a distance. Social grooming among nearby group members appeared exaggerated, with some individuals looking visibly anxious. When the mother finally abandoned the decomposing body, she looked back toward it and emitted contact calls.
Chimpanzees show a slightly different pattern. Dead adults and older juveniles receive more attention from the group than dead infants do, though the larger bodies aren’t carried. Instead, group members may sit near the body, touch it, and show signs of distress and depression that can persist for weeks after a companion’s death.
Orcas and Dolphins Carry Dead Calves
The most dramatic marine example involves an orca named Tahlequah (designated J35 by researchers), a Southern Resident killer whale who made international news in 2018 by carrying her dead newborn calf for 17 days. She balanced the body on her head and pushed it through the water across hundreds of miles. In late 2023, she was observed doing the same thing again after losing another newborn.
This isn’t unique to Tahlequah. Orcas and dolphins across multiple populations have been spotted supporting deceased calves at the water’s surface while emitting distress calls. The behavior, sometimes called epimeletic care, can last anywhere from hours to weeks. It appears most commonly in mothers with dead calves, but dolphins have also been seen supporting the bodies of unrelated pod members.
Crows and Magpies Hold “Funerals”
Corvids, the bird family that includes crows, ravens, and magpies, respond to death in ways that look strikingly deliberate. When a crow discovers the body of another crow, it lets out a loud alarm call that draws nearby birds to gather. The flock will linger around the body for anywhere from a few seconds to half an hour, calling loudly and stopping all feeding during that time. Researchers believe part of this behavior serves a practical purpose: the birds are assessing whether a predator is nearby and learning to avoid the area. But the response goes beyond simple threat detection.
Animal behaviorist Marc Bekoff observed four magpies standing beside a dead companion for an extended period. Two of them flew off and returned carrying blades of grass and small twigs, which they carefully placed next to the body, almost like laying a wreath. The magpies then waited quietly before leaving one by one. While it’s impossible to know the emotional content of this behavior, the deliberateness is hard to dismiss.
Giraffes Guard Their Dead
Giraffe mothers in East Africa have been observed lingering near the remains of dead calves for days. Because giraffes can’t physically carry a body the way primates or whales can, their response takes the form of vigilant guarding. They stand near the carcass, returning repeatedly to the same spot. Other giraffes in the area also approach and inspect the body, sometimes touching the carcass with their muzzles and then retreating. In one case, following the death of a four-week-old calf born with a deformed foot, multiple giraffes paid particular attention to the body in a repeated pattern of approaching, retreating, and touching.
Foxes and Other Solitary Species
Not all mourning behavior occurs in highly social species. Foxes have been observed burying the bodies of deceased mates. This is notable because foxes are relatively solitary compared to elephants or primates, yet they still show a response to a partner’s death that goes beyond simple indifference. The behavior isn’t well studied compared to the species above, but it suggests that pair bonding, not just complex social structure, can produce death-related responses.
Dogs and Cats After a Companion Dies
If you’ve ever lost one pet and watched another change afterward, you’re not imagining things. A study of pet owners found consistent behavioral shifts in both dogs and cats following the death of an animal companion.
Among 159 dogs studied, 35% ate less food than usual and 31% ate more slowly. About 34% slept more than normal. Roughly 27% vocalized more frequently, and 19% got louder. Many dogs also showed increased affectionate behavior and changes in how they used territory within the home.
Cats showed a particularly notable increase in vocalization: 43% of the 152 cats studied vocalized more often after losing a companion, and 32% became louder. About 21% of cats ate less, and 20% slept more. The vocalization spike in cats is especially interesting because cats are often assumed to be less socially attached than dogs, yet their vocal response to a companion’s death was proportionally larger.
These changes don’t necessarily prove cats and dogs experience grief the way humans do. But the patterns, reduced appetite, increased sleep, more vocalization, closely mirror the behavioral signatures of distress across many species.
What Science Can and Can’t Say
The central challenge in comparative thanatology is distinguishing grief as an emotion from grief-like behavior. Scientists can document that a mother orca carries her dead calf for 17 days or that an elephant returns to touch a relative’s bones. What they can’t do, at least not yet, is confirm the internal emotional experience driving those actions. Most researchers in the field assume that a true concept of death, understanding that death is irreversible, universal, and involves the cessation of all body functions, is cognitively demanding and likely rare outside of humans.
That said, the sheer variety of species showing these responses, from insects (some ants remove their dead from colonies) to great apes, suggests that some form of death awareness is more widespread than scientists once assumed. The behaviors are too consistent, too prolonged, and too costly in terms of energy and predator exposure to be written off as meaningless. Whether we call it grief or something else, these animals are clearly registering that something important has changed, and responding to it.