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Wade T.Smith wrote:
> >Elephants also observe burial rites,
>
> Ain't that a myth?
Yes and no. The following is from a 1995 interview by the Internet Roundtable
Society with "When Elephants Weep" author Susan McCarthy:
"Question from the Audience: Is it true that elephants can backtrack to the
ancestors' burial places? Does this mean they "respect" them?
SM: Elephant graveyards seem to be a myth. Concentrations of elephant bones
apparently result when human hunters comer and kill a herd of elephants, or in
shady places where sick elephants go to rest and sometimes die. On the other
hand, elephants have what may be a unique fascination with the bones of other
elephants -- a fascination which is so reliable that film makers never have any
problem recording this. And on rare occasions, elephants have been seen to
indulge in what almost looks like ritualistic behavior around a dead companion.
KP: What is the fascination among elephants? How does it demonstrate itself?
SM: Elephants are indifferent to the bones of other species, but will stop and
even detour to examine the bones of elephants, which they handle and look at
carefully. On one occasion, researcher Cynthia Moss had collected elephant bones
which were lying near her camp in Kenya. A troop of elephants came along and
examined them, but one young elephant in particular, spent a long time examining
a certain jaw bone. Eventually lie moved off to join the rest of the herd. His
particular fascination was so marked that Moss checked her records, and
discovered that he had been examining the jaw bone of his own mother."
-Prof. Tim
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