What kind of feelings do animals have, or do they even have any? This is a question that would be hard to determine except for the fact there are many animals that mourn their dead. There are people who would say an animal doesn’t understand death, but one only has to look at an elephant crying over its dead baby or mate to realize this animal knows what death is and realizes these dead elephants will never come back to life. There is a legend which states an elephant graveyard exists and when elephants get ill and feel they are going to die they instinctively go to the graveyard. They die there alone far away from the other elephants. Could this be because they don’t want to upset the rest of the herd with their death or is this some story which we invented? Elephants have been known to get very upset when one of their kind is sick and have been seen trying to lift them back to their feet and it is known elephants will cry for days when one of their kind dies.

It seems chimpanzees have a death ritual and this ritual was seen at the chimpanzee rescue center in Easton Cameroon. What happened was a prominent member of the chimpanzee community had died after thirty years. She was part of a family of twenty-five chimps. The family of chimps lined up around the perimeter of the enclosure as Dorothy the dead chimp was wheeled past them and buried. They placed their hands on one another’s shoulders mourning and perhaps comforting each other and they watched in complete silence. When this happened the humans who observed this knew right away the chimps had realized their relative was dead and this was their way of holding a funeral service. The employees who worked in the rescue center were all very moved.

One of the most intelligent birds is the magpie. It is incredibly intelligent, so much so they can even recognize themselves in the mirror. Their intelligence seems to go a lot further than just bird intelligence. When one discovered another dead magpie he approached the corpse gently pecking at it and stepped back. Another magpie did the same thing. The next thing which happened was even more startling as another magpie brought back some grass and laid it over the corpse then another magpie did the same thing. All four magpies stood for a few seconds looking at the corpse and then one by one they flew off. Had these birds realized one of their kind was dead and were they treating it with reverence, it certainly looks that way?

When Koko the famous gorilla that speaks sign language was asked what death was, she said it was being placed in a warm hole. Gorillas are known to bury dead animals they find.

Nobody knows exactly how smart dolphins are, we do know however they are very intelligent and some scientists even think they have their own speech, but we just haven’t decoded it yet. It is also said a dolphin has a hard time accepting death. When a member of their family dies a dolphin will remain with the corpse for days not wanting to leave. Sadly, people have seen dolphins in the water carrying their dead children above the waves and swimming out to sea. The people who have seen this say it is a heartbreaking sight. Two dolphins were spotted on the seabed remaining by the body of a dead female. They only left the body for minutes so they could go to the surface and breathe and then came back. Divers wanted to bring the body back with them to see why the female died but were unable, because the two males steadfastly remained by it. The researchers decided to come back the next day, but to their surprise when they did, the two males was still there. Another time a group of over twenty dolphins stood by the corpse of a dead dolphin which had died after being wedged between two large rocks. As divers came close the dolphins assumed an aggressive posture so the divers left. Apparently this was some sort of funeral rite.

We have known for some time dogs form bonds with humans which are unbreakable at times and they are affected by the loss of these humans. When a dog is attached to its owner who dies, the dog may refuse to eat because it is so laden with grief over the loss of its owner. Sometimes they will sleep a lot more than usual and become lethargic. Dogs have been known to refuse to leave the graves of their deceased owners for more than just a few minutes a day. One of the most famous stories is of a dog whose owner would take a train to work every day, but one day he never came back because he died. That dog stayed at the train station for the rest of his life waiting for his owner to return. The employees at the station would give the dog food and water.

Some animals bond for life and geese are one type of animal that do this. When a goose loses its mate to death it undergoes an intense mourning process. It usually loses weight, separates itself from the flock and even submits itself to other geese. There is no doubt a goose realizes it has lost its mate. After a long time of being alone a goose may take on another partner who has also lost its mate, but sometimes the goose will attach itself to a human.

Do animals have feelings? There is no doubt about it and many times we just don’t understand what these animals are going through. It seems the more intelligent the animal the deeper the feelings it has and the more it realizes what death has taken from it.