Asian elephants bury their dead, study suggests

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Researchers in India have for the first time documented how Asian elephants bury dead calves.

Five calves were found buried on their backs in drainage ditches in tea gardens in northern Bengal, according to a new study.

While African elephants are known to bury dead calves, this is the first time that the behavior has been documented in Asian elephants, study author Akashdeep Roy, a researcher at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), told CNN on Wednesday.

The burials were documented in areas home to fragmented forests and agricultural lands such as tea gardens, said Roy.

A dead calf being dragged by an adult.

Herds of elephants use trails that snake through tea gardens on their journeys through the countryside, he added.

In the past, elephants would have stayed mostly in the forests, but in recent decades they have become more comfortable in areas with a human presence, said Roy.

While elephants would not bury their dead in villages due to the high probability of human disturbance, the tea garden drainage ditches are a “perfect site” for calf burials, he explained.

“They hold the carcass with the legs or the trunk, it’s the only way they can get a grip on the carcass,” said Roy, who added that laying the body in the ditch and then covering it with mud is the easiest way for elephants to achieve a burial.

Roy said he and his co-author Parveen Kaswan of the Indian Forest Service were in the area to carry out other research when they found evidence of calf burials.

“We were surprised by this obviously,” said Roy.

This is the first time