Featured Image Credit: Huffington Post/ Orca Research
Whales are extremely smart and sociable creatures, so it comes as no surprise that they form tight bonds with one another.
A recent study says that several species of marine mammals have been seen clinging to the deceased body of a likely friend or relative. Why exactly are they refusing to let go of the corpse? Scientists now say there is one answer: grief.
Melissa Reggente, a biologist at the University of Milano-Bicohcca in Italy says “They are mourning. They are in pain and stressed. They know something is wrong.”
Several whale species were studied, from the huge sperm whale to the smaller spinner dolphin. They found that all several species were seen keeping company with their dead friends or family in oceans all around the world.
“We found it is very common and there is a worldwide distribution of this behavior,” Reggente said.
Scientists were on a boat in the Red Sea when they watched an Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin push a badly decayed smaller dolphin corpse through the water. It is not clear how the two dolphins were related, but they were most likely mother and child.
A female killer whale known as L72 was seen off the coast of Washington with a dead newborn in her mouth. The whale bore signs of recently given birth, and the researchers who spotted her knew that enough time had passed since her last calf was born that she was due to have another.
Robin Baird of Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Washington, who witnessed the mother’s efforts, said “She was trying to keep the dead calf up at the surface the entire time, balancing it on top of her head.”
A killer whale mother and her offspring may spend their entire lives together. When one dies, Baird believes “the animals go through a period where they experience the same kind of emotions you or I would when a loved one dies.”
Whales are not the only species who have been known to mourn. Among other species are giraffes, chimps, and elephants. Elephants actually return again and again to the body of a dead companion.