Scientists have found plenty of evidence suggesting that many animals have at least a basic understanding of death. But there are a few species who seem to have a deeper understanding. These species respond to death in ways that aren’t all that different from the ways humans respond. When a companion, mate, or offspring is lost, they often gather, touch the body, and console one another in ritualized ways. Some will stop eating, stare into space, and withdraw from their group, or wail, howl, and act out.
Despite the many observations of mourning in the animal kingdom, some skeptics still assert that what appears to be grief may just be stress caused by a change in environment. But when a human loses a loved one, how do we describe them? We would say the bereaved was sad because she had lost someone she cared about. We would never describe that person as experiencing stress caused by a change in environment.
If animals can develop bonds with one another—and we know they do—then why wouldn’t they experience grief in response to the death of an individual with whom they had shared a bond?
In the video below, a troop of Langur Monkeys show grieving and empathetic consolation behavior as they mourn what they think is a dead baby Langur, which is actually a robotic spy monkey, designed to film the primates. This footage was filming for the BBC series Spy In The Wild. Watch it and decide for yourself if they are grieving the loss of what they believe is an infant or simply experiencing stress caused by a change in environment.