This will move you !! Funeral procession of the weeping elephants carrying dead body of the child elephant. The family just don’t want to leave the baby. pic.twitter.com/KO4s4wCpl0
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) June 7, 2019
Last week, Indian Forest Services officer Parveen Kaswan captured a heartbreaking elephant funeral procession on video and shared the clip in a Tweet that has since gone viral.
In the footage, an adult elephant carries a deceased calf across a road, then sets the baby down and waits for the rest of the herd to arrive. The elephant then picks the calf up again, and the herd continues into the forest.
The video has been viewed over 223,000 times and retweeted more than 7,200 times.
Elephants are highly intelligent, social and emotional mammals who are known to grieve for their dead. They engage in specific mourning rituals, often for days at a time. These behaviors include quiet “contemplation” periods.
The profound sadness that elephants feel for their lost loved ones reminds us just how meaningful their lives are, and that we must avoid harming these amazing creatures at all costs.
