The grief of the female humpback whale provides insights into the emotional lives of animals
She stayed close by and remained with her dead calf for a long time. A rare observation of a female humpback whale that had lost her calf provides new insight into how whales grieve.
Unlike toothed whales, where females have been seen lifting their dead calves to the surface, female humpback whale remained beneath the surface with her calf.
The female, on the right of the picture, remained underwater with her dead calf and stayed close to it for a long time.
“She stayed close to the calf, maintained eye contact and remained by its side for several hours, perhaps even days,” says Olaf Meynecke of Griffith University in a press statement.
Meynecke says that although observations of this kind are incredibly sad, they contribute to our limited understanding of how baleen whales cope with death and suggest an innate, strong, maternal bond.
“Understanding how non-human animals react to death provides insight into their emotional lives, social bonds and cognitive abilities.”
Our understanding of how bearded whales cope with death is limited, and every observation provides new insights. Archive image.
