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Asian elephants perceive distress and also respond to it, say researchers
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Scientists have for the first time observed and recorded the behavior of free-ranging Asian elephants towards dying and dead elephants
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- The research paper was titled Behavioural responses of free-ranging Asian elephants (elephas maximus) towards dying or dead conspecifics, (conspecifics refers to member of same species).
- Researchers observed
(1) The elephants showed behaviours like exploratory (sniffing and inspecting) and epimeletic (supporting the distressed animals) or physically helping supporting dying calves.
(2) High frequency vocalisation (trumpets) by an adult female in the case of dying calves.
(3) Like their African counterparts, Asian elephants might experience distress in response to death of conspecifics and may have some awareness of death.
(3) Scientists have recorded three specific cases of elephants responding to injured, dying or dead conspecifics.
(4) Two of the three cases involved adult female calf pair and involved epimeletic or helping behavior towards the injured and dying calves.
(5) In the case of African elephants a behaviour was observed which involves taking interest in the bones of other elephants. “But that kind of behavior has not been observed in Asian elephants so far
Source
The Hindu