Social media has been flooded with emotion after a heartbreaking video of elephants holding a “funeral” for one of their young went viral.
Parveen Kaswan, an Indian Foreign Service forest ranger, shared the breathtaking video on Twitter. It depicts an adult Indian elephant carrying a dead infant’s body on its trunk as it emerges from a wooded region onto a road. After placing the body down, it seems to protect it while it waits for the other herd members to follow. Elephants of all ages congregate around the carcass, walking in a line that resembles a funeral procession.
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
With the group following closely, the body is taken into the forest as onlookers watch. The event sparked a wave of reactions on social media, garnering over 5,000 retweets and nearly 12,000 ‘likes.’
Devika commented: “This is heart rending. There’s a lot that humans can learn from animals.” Sumita Bhatt added: “Omg!!! First time I hv seen such video.. Really very touching.” Mohan Alembath described it as a “very touching and emotionally disturbing video,” noting that “elephants’ capacity for complex emotions like grief is truly remarkable.”
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