by WKRCThursday, May 19th 2022
A new study is shedding light on Asian elephant behavior, and the scientists behind the study used an unconventional method to collect the data. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
BENGALURU, India (WKRC) – A new study is shedding light on Asian elephant behavior, and the scientists behind the study used an unconventional method to collect the data.
YouTube videos may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about research tools, but scientists at the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science say it helped them learn more about a rare behavior in these elephants: how they respond to the death of a species member, also known as thanatological responses. The study was published Wednesday in Royal Society Open Science.
It’s rare to witness how animals respond to death in the wild; researchers have to be in the right place at the right time, many times. But YouTube videos were able to give these researchers a window into the animal kingdom they normally wouldn’t have.
Researchers started by searching YouTube for phrases and keywords like:
- Calf elephant death
- Death of elephants
- Elephant death
- Elephant reactions to death
- Elephant responding to death
The scientists found 58 videos matching the keywords. In 39 of those, they were able to observe 24 thanatological responses. The most recurring responses included guarding, postural changes, keeping vigil, touching and investigating the body, vocalizations and epimeletic reactions, which means the elephants tried to support, lift or pull the body.
The carrying of a dead calf by a female elephant was also observed, and the female was often accompanied by another member of the herd. In one video, a female elephant acted aggressively toward a young elephant trying to approach the calf’s body. According to the study, that behavior could be out of grief, saying it “may indicate either lack of understanding of death cues and hence perceiving it as an unresponsive calf, or perhaps might imply a ‘grief-like’ response.”
Researchers say this data challenges the notion that only humans understand death. They did note, however: “We cannot exclude the possibility that human presence might have influenced some of the elephants’ reactions. Collectively, these observations indicate that Asian elephants show interest in dying and dead conspecifics and the motivations behind thanatological responses in elephants (as in other species) need to be further explored.”
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