The feeling of existential loss was long thought to be uniquely human. But studies of coyotes, cockatoos and other creatures are prompting some scientists to reconsider.
Coyotes are not obvious romantics. Their habit of stalking across the landscape alone has earned them a reputation as solitary creatures — and not particularly popular ones, with a public image that ranges from troublesome nuisance to dangerous predator.
But they are deeply loyal mates. They remain with their partners for life, grooming each other, sharing food and raising pups together. “Basically, until death do us part,” said Sara Freeman, a neuroscientist at Utah State University.
In her airy, third-floor laboratory, Dr. Freeman is trying to understand how coyote couples forge these bonds — and what happens when they are broken.
“This is a widowed brain,” she said, pulling a few foil-wrapped packages from an ultracold freezer one morning in August. Each held a block of brain tissue, collected from a female coyote who had outlived her mate.
A student began shaving the frozen tissue into paper-thin slices, using the tip of a small paintbrush to nudge each translucent cross-section onto a glass slide. Later, the researchers would examine the samples, looking for neurological signs of “what we would call a grief state,” Dr. Freeman said.
The study remains in early stages, and it could take years to find clear answers. But the project is one of many in the young field of comparative thanatology, an interdisciplinary effort to unpack how animals respond to — and what they might understand about — death.
Evocative anecdotes abound. In 1972, Jane Goodall watched as a chimp named Flint stopped eating and socializing after the death of his mother, Flo; he died, weeks later, near the spot where her body had once lain. In 2003, African elephants were seen repeatedly returning to the body of a fallen matriarch, periodically prodding her with their trunks. In 2018, an orca named Tahlequah spent at least 17 days swimming with the body of her dead calf.
But whether animals experience grief — a complex, often long-lasting psychological and biological response to loss — remains an open question. “It’s definitely one of those great mysteries,” said Jennifer Vonk, a comparative cognitive psychologist at Oakland University. “And a challenge for scientists.”
Animal deaths are often unpredictable and unseen, especially in the wild. And grief is a complex and loaded concept; it’s easy to project our human experiences onto other creatures and impossible to truly get inside their heads.
Scientists are trying anyway. “The field is ripe for development,” said André Gonçalves, a comparative cognitive scientist at the Indianapolis Zoological Society. “I mean, mortality is kind of a big deal, right?”
