Researchers have recently become excited by what was formerly something of a taboo research topic – the study of animal responses to death. Despite decades of fascinating anecdotes about animals seemingly mourning their dead (for example, elephants’ response to the bones of their family members, a chimpanzee refusing to eat following the death of his mother), systematic scientific study was limited. When researchers did begin to study how animals responded to death, the research was largely restricted to observations of primate mothers carrying their deceased infants.
Although reminiscent of grief, researchers were reluctant to attribute human-like emotions to these behaviours as there can be other explanations. For example, mothers may not realise the infant has died due to a failure to understand the finality of death and its effect on the body. Primate mothers may also enjoy increased attention and elevated social status when they are carrying infants. Observations of a well-known killer whale, J35, holding the body of a dead infant at the water’s surface for a period of 17 days over 1000 miles in 2018 also launched a passionate online debate about whether the mother whale was in mourning. Behaviours surrounding infant care may be so instinctual and under hormonal control that their existence alone cannot allow researchers to determine that bereaved mothers experience emotional states akin to grief. These recent discussions have highlighted the need for systematic empirical study in a broader group of animals.
Research into what animals might understand about death and whether they are capable of representing concepts as abstract as inevitability and finality still eludes the creativity of scientists. But an important first step is to catalogue the appearance of behavioural changes in animals following deaths and to determine whether animals respond in ways that would be expected if they were experiencing emotions similar to what humans recognise as grief.
Although it is an anthropomorphic exercise, humans are limited to drawing comparisons to their own behaviours, as we cannot know what grief might feel like to any other organism. So we look for behaviours such as attending to the body, searching for the deceased individuals, distress vocalisations, decreases in appetite, and changes in sleep and social behaviours. If such behaviours are more likely to change in expected directions following the death of companions, and if greater change occurs when surviving animals have closer social relationships to the deceased, then we are closer to understanding whether other species might respond to bereavement in a manner consistent with grief.
Surprisingly, there are currently fewer reports of domesticated animals and their responses to death compared to the rapidly proliferating observations of wild species. But my student and I recently collected data from cat carers to show that domestic cats, like dogs and other cats studied previously, showed behavioural changes following the death of another companion animal in the home. These changes were as one might expect if the cats missed their deceased companions (such as decreases in eating, sleeping, and playing; increases in attention-seeking behaviour).
Most notably, cats showed greater behavioural change if they had previously spent more time interacting with the deceased animal and had lived together for longer. But carer grief and attachment also predicted the reporting of greater change, suggesting that carers may perceive the cats as grieving because of a desire to share their own grief with their other animal companions. Thus, more work is needed to better understand whether companion animals are capable of grief.
Despite a large literature on how companion animal carers grieve the loss of their companion animals, researchers have not yet examined how those companion animals respond to the death of a human carer. This is the goal of my current research, in which I hope to hear from bereaved animal carers that can report on how their animals have responded to the death of a human in their household. I realise this is a painful subject that may be difficult to respond to, but it is so critical to better understand the bond between carers and their beloved companions. If you have lost a loved one while sharing a home with at least one companion animal and you would be willing to participate in a brief survey about the animal’s responses, it would be greatly appreciated!
The survey should take less than 15 minutes to complete.
