Asian elephants bury their dead calves, Indian study finds

Researchers discover five young elephant corpses in legs-up position in unique burial ritual

Elephants in India have been found to bury their calves in irrigation drains, according to a recently published study.

Grieving Asian elephants bury their dead calves, a study by Indian experts has found.

A team of experts discovered five elephant carcasses that appeared to be buried in a “legs-upright-position” in trenches already dug by people for irrigation.

The calves appeared to have been buried by fellow elephants – the first time this behaviour has been observed in Asian elephants.

The findings are the result of a study in northern Bengal by Indian Forest Service officer Parveen Kaswan and Akashdeep Roy, a researcher on man-human conflict with the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research.

“Elephants are sentient beings and know what they are doing … the burial strategy is unique. No other mammals have done it,” Mr Roy told The National.

Previous studies found burial behaviour among African elephants, who used leaves and twigs to cover the carcasses of their calves in an act called described as a weak burial.

Since late 2022 the Indian experts conducted their research in the north Bengal region, which lies in the Himalayan foothills and is fragmented with forests, tea gardens, agricultural lands and military establishments.

The region is home to 500 wild Asian elephants who use tea gardens as corridors to travel between the forests, according to the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The study was published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on February 26.

Mr Roy said that the post-mortem report showed the calves had contusions or drag marks, which hinted that they were dragged by their trunks and legs for a distance before being buried in a legs-upright position.

“We found these cases very strange. Especially the position of the carcasses. We found that this was happening across the landscape,” Mr Roy said.

“In Africa, they are grassland elephants, and are not very efficient in digging. They were doing weak burials covered with leaves and twigs. In our case, they found the trenches pre-built."

The experts said that the calves appeared to have been placed delicately, with other elephants gripping their legs and burying them head and torso first.

“The elephants gave priority to head and torso first because whenever there is a carnivore, they will attack the belly and neck area,” Mr Roy said.

They researchers also found that the elephants in the region avoid the paths where the calves are buried.

“We were curious whether these were accidental burials, but they had died of microbial infection, multi-organ failure and cardio-respiratory failure. All five of them had drag marks.

“It means they died somewhere else and were dragged to [this] location, which had less human interference,” Mr Roy said.

Experts have found that elephants have a strong bonds with their offspring due to oxytocin hormones and their prolonged gestation period, which is about 22 months on average – the longest pregnancy of any mammal.