Science
Pictures of how dolphins interact with their deceased relatives raise the question of what they probably understand the concept of death. It was noted that bottlenose dolphins living in Western Greece react differently to the death of a friend, depending on whether he died suddenly or after a long illness.
In fact, interpreting the behavior of an animal after the death of a relative is fraught with difficulties. Death is rare in the wild, so humans can easily mistakenly transfer their feelings about death to an animal. However, some species of intelligent and social animals, such as gorillas, chimpanzees and elephants, often exhibit special behavior after the death of their relative, which some interpreted as mourning.
Thus, given the fact that there are constantly increasing reports of unusual interactions between cetaceans and their deceased counterparts, and given the discovery that they have specialized neurons that are associated with empathy and intuition, a Greek study concluded that dolphins may have a very complex response to death.
Joan Gonzalvo from the Tethys Research Institute in Milan has been monitoring the bottlenose dolphin population in Amvrakikos Bay since 2006. In July 2007, she and her team saw a mother interact with her dead newborn baby. She raised the corpse above the surface of the water in an apparent attempt to make him breathe. “It happened over and over again, sometimes desperately, for two days,” Gonsalvo says. “The mother did not part with her baby.”
The newborn dolphin had an injured lower jaw, which suggests that he was killed by another dolphin. “Infanticide is specific to this species,” Gonsalvo says. Realizing the possibility of transferring human emotions to animals, she nevertheless assumed that the mother was in mourning for her cub's sudden death.
Freedom from suffering?
A year later, Gonsalvo observed a 2-3 month old dolphin that found it difficult to swim. His body was damaged, possibly by pesticides or heavy metal contaminants. “His adult relatives appeared and tried to help the dying animal stay afloat, but it continued to fade away, about an hour later it died.”
Remembering his previous observation, Gonsalvo decided that the animals would stay with the deceased “friend”, however, contrary to expectations, the group of dolphins immediately left the place. “My hypothesis is that in this case, the dying friend was simply supported, and when he died, the band's' job 'was done, so they left the place right away. They knew death was near and they were ready for it.” However, Gonzalvo admits that this kind of interpretation is speculative and the conclusion is based on limited data, so she is currently collecting examples from other studies before you publish your observations.
Ingrid Visser, a specialist at a research center in New Zealand, also observed bottlenose dolphins and how their females behave with dead cubs. She interpreted their behavior as mourning and grief. However, she admits that the animal's behavior may simply be wrong, as it may not realize that the baby is dead. “However, we know that cetaceans have a neuron that is linked to human grief.” Thus, this allows her to assume that this behavior is an expression of grief.
Death rites
Visser notes that she witnessed similar things that happened when whales were thrown ashore. “When one of them died, others would swim by and stop, as if to check or verify that a friend was really dead. If we tried to get them to sail by without stopping, they actively resisted and returned to their dead relative. It's not known if they understand death, but they're bound to stop to grieve. That's what their behavior says.”
“The findings by many scientists are extremely interesting, but we can't know what's going on in an animal's head because it's beyond our reach. In this regard, any conclusions will be speculative.”