Do Animals Hold Funerals for Their Loved Ones Like We Do, or Are We Just Projecting Grief?

Tahlequah is an endangered orca that inhabits the calm, nutrient-rich waters of the Pacific Northwest. In 2018, the 26-year-old cetacean made headlines around the world as a symbol of animal grief after he was filmed carrying a dead newborn, Alki, along his nose.

She would continue to do this for a little over three weeks.

Cetaceans, like orcas, are socially complex and cognitively advanced animals. They teach their young how to hunt and have distinct cultures and dialects. Like Tahlequah, mammals can even mourn the loss of their family members – at least, that’s how their behavior appears to us humans.

David Stahlman is a professor of psychology at the University of Mary Washington, specializing in animal behavior and comparative cognition. He says that although many species exhibit behaviors that appear ritualistic, such as holding funerals, few of them engage in characteristic forms of behavior, that is, actions that are consistent and observable.

“I think we would be doing a disservice to science if we talked about such behavior as ‘arranging a funeral.’ Rather, I think that what we call funerals in humans may be largely an extension of typical behavior in particularly social but nonverbal animals,” says Stahlman.

“In social creatures, the well-being of an individual is necessarily dependent on other members of the group. In such cases, the behavior of one individual will often be a function of the behavior of another individual – one word we use to identify such a case is ‘helping’ behavior,” adds Stahlman.

Learn more: Animals react to death in several ways. Grief could be part of it.

How animals react to death

Species that develop complex social behaviors will also develop complex death-related behaviors, he adds. Indeed, a deceased individual no longer responds to group dynamics or participates in other social functions from which their companions benefit. While once an individual animal might have interacted with a now deceased animal, it does not, thereby altering its behavior.

Elephants visit their dead

Elephants, for example, present a “fascinating case” that has been studied perhaps more frequently than any other species in comparative thanatology, or in the study of how different species respond to death and dying.

“The most common types of behavior you see in them are approach and ‘curiosity’ toward the dead, including visits to the carcass, and an increase in prosocial behavior toward other living conspecifics,” says Stahlman..

Wild African and Asian elephants are known to visit the carcasses of their dead calves and care for their dying matriarchs, showing that the giant mammals demonstrate a general awareness and curiosity about death, according to a study published in Applied science of animal behavior. As Stahlman describes it, animals are known to touch, approach, and investigate the carcasses of their dead, revisiting them in all stages of decomposition.

In 2024, researchers writing in the Journal of Threatened Taxa Elephants documented in northern India carried deceased calves by their trunks and legs to a specific site, where they were buried face up. Different herds exhibited different behaviors, but were generally observed trumpeting around buried calves.

Cetaceans carrying their dead

Cetaceans, like dolphins and whales, form deep emotional bonds with their families, and their behavior after the death of their young also indicates that they are grieving their loss. On several occasions, dolphins and whales have been seen carrying their dead calves for hours or even days.

Tahlequah was seen again in December 2024 carrying another dead calf. Marine biologists call this behavior “epimeletic,” an extended period of maternal care that shows love, loss and grief – like humans – in other animals.

Chimpanzees have a moment of silence

More than a dozen chimpanzees gathered at a rescue center in Cameroon after the death of their matriarch, Dorothy, in 2008. They gathered in unnatural silence, touched each other and showed signs of grief.

Although researchers such as Stahlman are cautious about attributing human-like behaviors, such events suggest complex emotional processing, according to the International Institute of Cognition and Culture.

Other cases of non-human primates mourning their deceased include “carrying the corpse for prolonged periods (primarily mothers carrying dead infants) and inspecting the corpse for signs of life,” a team of researchers wrote in a 2019 study in Primates.

Corvids Raven to the sky

Anecdotal evidence also suggests that birds in the corvid family, such as magpies, ravens, and rooks, continue to engage in dialogue with their fallen comrades.

A study in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B claims that crows sometimes get along with their dead counterparts, while another study in the same journal claims that magpies gather around the deceased for up to 15 minutes at a time, cawing loudly.

Rats bury their dead

Known for their intelligence and highly social behavior, rats also seem to mourn the loss of their cage mats. Scientists in a 1981 study in Physiology and behavior found that rats buried the bodies of their long-dead companions – about 40 hours – but not those dead less than five hours.

However, rather than indicating a deep connection between individuals, this behavior may instead reflect efforts to remove a decaying individual that might pose a health risk to the living group.

Ants use mounds or prepare a meal with the dead

Similarly, ants bury their dead in compact mounds that resemble insect graveyards. Taking over the role of undertaker does not reflect deep connection or emotional intelligence; rather, it is a means of protecting the colony.

Live ants can also eat their dead counterparts, taking advantage of the remaining nutrients.

Are animals really grieving or are we just projecting our own emotions?

Humans speak to their dead at funerals and keep memories of them through tombstones or photographs. Some might even present offerings of food or drink.

“When our emotions are high or our situation seems dire, we demand answers from them. All of this represents a behavior we call ‘missing,’ in the sense that they were the target of some of our behaviors, and now the repertoire we have built is ‘missing the target,’ since they can no longer respond to us,” Stahlman explains.

“Grieving concerns a part of ourselves, a part of our own behavior, that is no longer functional because someone has died. There is no reason to think that this does not also occur in non-human social animal species,” adds Stahlman.

In other words, pet funerals may be less about intellect and more about practicality. Then again, who are we to say how other species feel?

Learn more: After death, the necrobiome helps trace the circle of life

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