For all of the “animals don’t have souls” advocates out there, could you please try and explain this?
Often times with nature videos, we see the battle for survival, or a predator taking down prey, but we never really see the aftermath of these types of events. The footage below shows that there are major life implications following death in the animal kingdom, just like there are when humans lose a loved one.
Bison are the type of animals that prefer to live in groups, and often use their “strength in numbers” mentality to fend off attackers. However, tragedy struck this herd in Yellowstone National Park, and there wasn’t much they could do to prevent the death of one of their herd mates.
According to the information available, one of the bison cows passed away during childbirth when there was a complication with the delivery of its calf. While those issues are often preventable with modern day medicine, the advanced science obviously isn’t readily available out in the wild, and the mother bison unfortunately didn’t make it.
When watching the footage, it is clear as day that the loss clearly hurt the herd, and many of the bison experienced a sharing of grief in a gathering around the body a day after the cow’s death. Say what you want, but that’s effectively a “bison funeral,” which is apparently commonplace for the big beasts.
As the caption for the video describes:
“Bison mourn one of their own that we believe to have been a cow that died the day before of complications from its calf delivery. Bison have been observed appearing to mourn the death of their herd members.
When a bison dies in Yellowstone National Park, the herd will often gather around the carcass to pay their respects and protect it. Other animals, like wolves and grizzly bears, will keep their distance during this mourning process.”
If that last part is true (and I guess we’ll just take “Yellowstone Video’s” word for it), how crazy is it that other predators like bears and wolves respect the mourning process of the bison herd?
Things out in nature are generally cutthroat, so for other predators to give the bison their space for their “funeral” is arguably emotionally stirring. You can view the moving video at the link below:
