Heart-wrenching footage has emerged of grieving elephants carrying the lifeless body of a dead calf across a road in scenes reminiscent of a funeral procession. The video shows an Indian elephant walking out of the undergrowth holding the baby’s carcass, followed by at least eight others. The elephants cross into a different area of the undergrowth, with the adult elephant still carrying the calf’s body. It is not known how the calf died. Scientists have been trying to determine whether elephants grieve for their lost herd members, as elephants live in tight herds and form strong bonds between each other. In 2016, a video of three different elephant families visiting the body of a dead matriarch and repeatedly smelling and touching the corpse was shared, suggesting that the animals may have had a deep emotional connection with the body and could be experiencing grief.
In the eastern part of India, in the state of Odisha, a baby elephant was using its trunk to gently stroke the head of its motionless mother.
