Officials order 24-hour care for grieving elephant

Conservationists in India are working around the clock to help a grief-stricken elephant recover from the shock of its long-term partner’s death.

Rupa and Amrit had been inseparable since they were rescued from a circus more than ten years ago, according to conservation staff in Bihar.  They had worked together lifting logs at the Valmikinagar Tiger Project, shared their food, and Rupa remained loyal to him, rejecting rival mates, even after he became increasingly crippled with arthritis. His illness eventually left him paralysed and he died earlier this week from associated conditions.

Since his initial separation for treatment and later death Rupa has slumped deeper into depression, refusing to eat and resisting attempts by her mahout or rider to persuade her to move.

Officials said her decline reflects the range of elephants’ emotions and their ability to love and grieve.

In recent years Indian elephants have made headlines for a series of violent and fatal attacks on people straying onto their territory, or raids on homes for alcohol and food. Rupa’s grief however has highlighted their softer side and intense loyalty.

Her mahout, Prabhu Sahni, who is now watching over his charge 24 hours a day, told the Hindustan Times she is now “melancholy personified”.

Santosh Tewari, field director at the Valmikinagar Tiger Project where the two elephants moved from Patna Zoo in 2007, said it was normal for elephants to grieve for a day after the death but Rupa’s continuing sadness reflected their deeper connection.

“She is in an emotional shock after Amrit’s death. She stopped taking food completely and we had to switch on to her favorite foods like sugarcane and bananas. She has partially resumed eating now and the mahout is taking her to the different locations in the park to [help her] emerge out of the emotional shock”, he said. “Elephants are the most emotional and intelligent animals. They express both sadness and happiness and in some cases may have welling of water in their eyes as a response to the emotion. They explicitly convey their emotions and stopping eating food is one of the signs,"

Dr N Baskaran, professor at AVC college of wildlife in Tamil Nadu, said elephants share many human emotions.  “They show sadness and happiness and are very social . If a mother loses a calf she will be as sad as a human. But since they live in herds, they get over the trauma quickly.  In natural conditions the male and female elephants stay with each other till the offspring are born and then the female takes care but in this case it seems they had developed a great bond”, he said.

At death of adult male Rix from fall from a tree, group members showed intense excitement, called, paused to stare at his corpse, then performed charging displays away from the corpse, and threw rocks in all directions, while other chimps embraced, touched and mounted one another. Later, some “spent considerable time staring at the body. One male leaned down from a limb, watched the corpse, then whimpered. Others touched or sniffed Rix’s remains. An adolescent female uninterruptedly gazed at the body for more than an hour, during which she sat motionless and in complete silence.

Lone Wolf wrote:
   I'VE said it before many times, and I'll say it again ~ I have NO time for that body of so-called "animal behaviourists" who consistently attempt to claim that Mankind is the only animal that possesses "self awareness", and therefore alone is able to grieve, miss partner animals and close "friends" within social groups, or feel pain or loss to the same degree as humans can (!).

An extremely dedicated dog has continued to show its loyalty, keeping watch on its owner's grave six years after he passed away.

Capitan, a German shepherd, reportedly ran away from home after its owner, Miguel Guzman, died in 2006. A week later, the Guzman family found the dog sitting by his grave in central Argentina.

Miguel Guzman adopted Capitan in 2005 as a gift for his teenage son, Damian. And for the past six years, Capitan has continued to stand guard at Miguel's grave. The family says the dog rarely leaves the site.

"We searched for him, but he had vanished," widow Veronica Guzman told LaVoz.com. "We thought he must have got run over and died.  The following Sunday we went to the cemetery, and Damian recognized his pet. Capitan came up to us, barking and wailing as if he were crying."

Adding to the unusual circumstances, Veronica says the family never brought Capitan to the cemetery before he was discovered there.  "It is a mystery how he managed to find the place," she said.

Cemetery director Hector Baccega says he and his staff have begun feeding and taking care of Capitan.

"He turned up here one day, all on his own, and started wandering all around the cemetery until he eventually found the tomb of his master," Baccega said. "During the day he sometimes has a walk around the cemetery, but always rushes back to the grave. And every day, at six o'clock sharp, he lies down on top of the grave, stays there all night."

But the Guzman family hasn't abandoned Capitan. Damian says the family has tried to bring Capitan home several times but that he always returns to the cemetery on his own.

"I think he's going to be there until he dies, too. He's looking after my dad," he said.

Ben_Reilly wrote:Dogs are amazing too! You hear about them doing things like this all the time.

I always liked the story (true!) of the dog in Japan that prays with his Buddhist owner at the temple:

Ben_Reilly wrote:Dogs are amazing too! You hear about them doing things like this all the time.

I always liked the story (true!) of the dog in Japan that prays with his Buddhist owner at the temple:

jaded fox wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:Dogs are amazing too! You hear about them doing things like this all the time.

I always liked the story (true!) of the dog in Japan that prays with his Buddhist owner at the temple:

Don't forget one of the most famous of Japanese dogs, Hachiko. He has a station gate named in his honor and a statue just outside. There was a movie about him in 87. Then Hollywood decided to remake it. For some reason the story of a Japanese dog and his Japanese owner just couldn't be told without it being moved to America and having an almost totally white cast.

nicko wrote:I can never forget the video of the cat that was run over in the middle of the road. His friend [another cat] sat by him in the traffic trying to "wake " him, he kept tapping him with his paw but no response.Eventually he pulled him by the fur on his neck out of the traffic to the side of the road and sat with him. Last thing I saw, some one  came along and picked him up. I'm not crying, i'v something in my eye!

Original Quill wrote:You did notice that the kid stopped crying, didn't you?  :curtsy: 

feelthelove wrote:

Original Quill wrote:You did notice that the kid stopped crying, didn't you?  :curtsy: 

Of course, cute though wasn't it  :heart30: x