Heartbreaking Moment of Elephants Mourning, Video: Fact Check

Story:

Heartbreaking Moment of Elephants Mourning:
A herd of Elephants pays final respects to their dead leader killed by rival.

Fact Check:

A popular video in circulation purports to show a Heartbreaking Moment of Elephants Mourning in Sri Lanka. It appears to show a herd of Elephants paying final respects to their dead leader killed by rival. Yes, the incident is a fact.

About Elephants Mourning

Elephants are deeply emotional, intelligent and social animals that captivated zoologists’ interest. They form extremely close bonds with group members and show reverence towards the dead. In fact, from a long time, experts have been suggesting that the magnificent elephant creatures are able to grieve and mourn. It’s just that such incidents are rarely captured on camera.

Earlier in September 2016 National Geographic published one such rare footage from Kenya related to Elephants mourning. Two weeks after the death of their matriarch, some elephants continued to visit her remains and showed interest in the dead. As can be seen in the video below, the groups of elephant families stand peacefully in place and use their trunks to touch and explore the carcass. You can also see some of the elephants have streaming from their temporal glands behind their eyes. It happens during elevated emotions like in stress or excitement.

The Heartbreaking Moment in Sri Lanka

Coming to the current story of heartbreaking moment of Elephants mourning, the incident took place in Anuradhapura, the Capital of North Central Province in Sri Lanka. A large herd of Elephants, including calves, visited and caressed the dead leader elephant’s body, appearing as if they are saying goodbye. According to Stringer News Agency in India, the elephant leader was killed by a rival tusker, which also returned to the corpse after rest of the herd had left. Notably, the place is near to the Kala Wewa reserve, which is home to elephant herds with a high percentage of tuskers. As a matter of fact, local people came to know about the incident and filmed the heart touching scene.