In recent years, however, there has been a shift in many researchers’ perceptions of how advanced animals can think. Several research studies indicate that some animals have a consciousness and possibly therefore also the ability to recognize death.
Part of being aware of death is feeling sad when others die. Here, several observations point in the direction that some animals grieve when they experience loss.
For example, you might remember when pictures of the killer whale Tahlequah a few years ago broke people’s hearts when the story of her gripping farewell to her dead youngster toured the media.
Tahlequah’s pups died shortly after birth, but instead of letting their offspring sink to the bottom, the mother used her snout to push the pup 1,600 kilometers along the west coast of North America for days, following her flock.
Only after 17 days did Tahlequah finally let go, after which, according to whale researchers, she seemed more relieved and uplifted.
It may seem logical that Tahlequah was swimming around with her young because she was devastated by its death. But we simply do not know if Tahlequah tried to help her young up to the surface to draw air because she just did not understand that it was dead.
That example illustrates well why it is difficult to know whether animals understand death on the basis of scientific principles.
– Strictly scientific, we can not say that animals feel sad, because we can not look into their brains. People we can talk to and they can tell about the grief.
– When it comes to animals, we can only observe and interpret their behavior. So we are moving on the edge of what science can embrace, says Sussie Pagh.
Among other things, she researches animal consciousness and has written about the subject in the books “Do animals think?” and “The Wise Crows of the North”.
On the one hand, it can be risky to interpret too much about animal behavior, because experiments show that humans cannot even see through what other humans are feeling.
But at the same time, we do not think that the dumb do not feel grief just because they can not tell about it.
There has certainly been an increased awareness of biodiversity, animal welfare and the meat industry in recent years.
And if one day we find out that animals have thoughts and feelings that are similar to ours, and possibly understand death, “we are faced with a terrible truth” that makes us have to rethink how we treat animals, Sussie believes Pagh.
Source: The Nordic Page