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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 13425
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| Posted: 02 November 2026 at 12:29pm | IP Logged | 1
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LINK: https://archive.ph/6bkh9
QUOTE:
| Apes, monkeys, dolphins and whales sometimes carry the corpses of their young for days or weeks. Some bereaved macaque mothers become isolated and withdrawn, receiving less grooming and initiating fewer hugs. Giraffes stand vigil over fallen calves; elephants touch the bones of their dead. Dogs, cats and horses sometimes seem to lose interest in food after the death of animal (or human) companions, owners have reported.
Whether these behaviors are signs of sorrow is open to interpretation, and reports from animal caretakers are not always reliable. (Bereaved pet owners might project their own grief onto their surviving animals.) |
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Anyone experience this anecdotally?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 02 November 2026 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | 2
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My cat Earl had a particular spot on a carpet in the front hallway of my previous home. He lay there all day long, monitoring the whole house. The morning after he died I came downstairs to find Wanda, my chow, lying with her nose on that spot.
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Evan S. Kurtz
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 July 2022
Location: Canada
Posts: 479
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| Posted: 02 November 2026 at 12:49pm | IP Logged | 3
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The fact that they aren't already certain that animals grieve is just another example of how humans regularly underestimate the depth of personality and complexity of animals.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 02 November 2026 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | 4
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Yes, since they don’t think exactly the way we do some dismiss any suggestion that they think at all. Growing up, I was most intrigued by the way that dogs, lacking speech centers in their brains, nevertheless learned human languages.
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
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| Posted: 02 November 2026 at 1:31pm | IP Logged | 5
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Quick story. Back in the old country, before WW2, my grandfather, who was an itinerant coppersmith, was traveling away from his village, between towns, and deep in a mountain forest, he fell ill and fell off his mule, Marko. He collapsed on the ground, passed out, it started to snow, burying him. Marko left him, walked back to his village, to his house, and bashed his head upon the door until my grandmother opened. Seeing riderless Marko, she got a group to look for my grandfather, and -- Marko saved his life. Lassie!
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James Woodcock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8746
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| Posted: 02 November 2026 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | 6
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Dogs and cats, the main animals I have experience of living with, certainly
show the traits that, if they were seen in a human, would be called grieving.
I think to express that as anything but, is to diminish what they are capable
of, or experience.
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Mark Haslett
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: 02 November 2026 at 3:24pm | IP Logged | 7
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Marko the mule! Three cheers!
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Mark Haslett
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: 02 November 2026 at 3:29pm | IP Logged | 8
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Re: the article— what an astonishing paragraph. Animals regularly
demonstrate what we call grief, paying the social costs of depression and
sadness. “But we can’t call it grief because… unspoken bias prevents us
from completing that sentence.”
What else would explain those behaviors in those circumstances from our
own genetic cousins?
Wild.
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 13425
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| Posted: 02 November 2026 at 3:36pm | IP Logged | 9
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My father told me that whenever my grandfather was way down at the bottom of the mountain, he'd call out -- "Marko!" -- and the echo would reach up and up and up, and Marko would even so distantly always bray back in response.
Our animal friends...! I mean, animal to animal friends, of course!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 02 November 2026 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | 10
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One of my favorite quotes: Dogs have masters, cats have staff.
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