Elephants, especially cow elephants, are known to be highly social animals caring deeply about their herd (read: family). Scientists have been studying these intelligent giants for many years now, but the surprises do not seem to be ending anytime soon. As a study carried out in India and published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa in February claims, Asian elephants bury dead calves.
If true, the act suggests heightened understanding of life and death. This is the first time a study has documented such behaviour in the Asian elephant. For some time now, it has been believed that African elephant herds bury dead calves.
A report in CNN said the study found five calves buried on their backs in drainage ditches in North Bengal’s tea gardens. Study author Akashdeep Roy, a researcher at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, said, “The burials were documented in areas (that are) home to fragmented forests and agricultural lands such as tea gardens.”
Roy said elephant herds in the region use trails that snake through tea gardens on their journeys through the countryside. According to him, despite mostly being denizens of the forests, the animals have grown more comfortable in areas where humans, too, live.
So, how did Asian elephants start to exhibit this behaviour? “While elephants would not bury their dead in villages due to the high probability of human disturbance, the tea garden drainage ditches are a perfect site for calf burials,” Roy explained.
The animals apparently hold the carcass by the legs or trunk as that is the only way they can get a grip on it. “Laying the body in the ditch and then covering it with mud is the easiest way for elephants to achieve a burial,” he said.
Roy and the study’s co-author, Parveen Kaswan of the Indian Forest Service, were surprised by the discovery. The duo had visited the area for research in a different area but chanced upon the evidence of calf burials. Roy intends to keep looking for more such cases in northern Bengal and neighbouring Assam. For this, his team plans to use the latest technology such as drones. They will also request tea garden managers and local residents to report any burial sites.
Joshua Plotnik, assistant professor of psychology at Hunter College in New York, who was not a part of the study and who studies cognition in elephants and other animals, told CNN, “While there are observed instances of elephants carrying calf carcasses, to my knowledge, none of my colleagues, including many that have observed elephants for decades, have observed elephants burying their dead.”
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He said an alternative, simpler explanation could be that the calves fell into these ditches, could not get out, and died there, with the dirt falling in naturally after they died or evidence of an attempted rescue by other members of the herd.
Roy, however, is certain the calves were buried. “The contusions on the backs of the dead calves show that they were dragged to their resting place by other members of the herd,” he said. The five burial sites were in:
- Devpara tea estate. The site was 350 m from the nearest human settlement and approximately 4 km from the nearest reserve forest.
- Chunabhati tea estate under the Binnaguri Wildlife Squad of the Gorumara Wildlife Division. The burial site was 150 m away from the nearest human settlement and 4.5 km from the nearest forest.
- Bharnabari tea estate in the jurisdiction of the Hamiltonganj range of the Buxa Tiger Reserve. This site was 300 m from the nearest human settlement.
- Majherdabri tea estate in the jurisdiction of the East Damanpur range of the Buxa Tiger Reserve. This site was 500 m from the nearest human settlement and close to a national highway.
- New Dooars tea estate under the Gorumara wildlife division. The burial site here was 700 m from human settlement.
All the carcasses were found by tea estate workers and staff alerted the authorities. The forest department then removes the bodies. So far at least, Asian elephants have not been observed to revisit the burial sites, unlike their African cousins.
