Do Animals Grieve? Scientists Rethink the Idea of Loss
The feeling of existential loss was long thought to be uniquely human. Studies of coyotes, cockatoos and other animals are leading some scientists to reconsider.
Whether animals can grieve is becoming a subject of scientific inquiry. For a long time, the sense of existential loss was believed to belong only to humans.
That assumption is now being questioned by studies of several species, including coyotes, wild canines found in North America, and cockatoos, birds of the parrot family. Based on these observations, some scientists are reconsidering the earlier view of how animals experience death and loss.
The New York Times examines the topic in an article titled "Do Animals Grieve?". The introduction available for this report does not give specific study findings, researcher names or figures, so further details about the research are not reported here.
