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NY Times opinion: We Will All Mourn, and We Will All Be Mourned

5/31/2022

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On the judgements people make and receive about grieving.
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May 20th, 2022

5/20/2022

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Royal Society of Open Science:
Elephants and mourning

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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel, Nachiketha Sharma, and Raman Sukumar
Insights into dead calf carrying and other thanatological responses in Asian elephants using YouTube videos
Abstract
Documenting the behavioural repertoire of an animal species is important for understanding that species' natural history. Many behaviours such as mating, parturition and death may be observed only rarely in the wild due to the low frequency of occurrence, short duration and the species' elusiveness. Opportunistic documentation of rare behaviours is therefore valuable for deciphering the behavioural complexity in a species. In this context, digital platforms may serve as useful data sources for studying rare behaviours in animals. Using videos uploaded on YouTube, we document and construct a tentative repertoire of thanatological responses (death-related behaviours) in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). The most frequently observed thanatological responses included postural changes, guarding/keeping vigil, touching, investigating the carcass, epimeletic behaviours and vocalizations. We also describe some infrequently observed behaviours, including carrying dead calves by adult females, re-assurance-like behaviours and attempts to support dying or dead conspecifics, some of which were only known anecdotally in Asian elephants. Our observations indicate the significance of open-source video data on digital platforms for gaining insights into rarely observed behaviours and support the accumulating evidence for higher cognitive abilities of Asian elephants in the context of comparative thanatology.

For full paper:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.211740
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New York Times: Searching for the Lost Graves of Louisiana's Enslaved People

5/16/2022

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"Historical maps. The descendants of enslaved people. And multibillion dollar petrochemical companies. These elements converge in a story about the hidden burial grounds of Louisiana’s enslaved people, and how continued industrial development is putting the historic sites at risk.

In this video, we reveal what is hiding in plain sight: the possible burial grounds of enslaved people who were forced to work these plantations 200 years ago. Their locations have remained a mystery, until now...."
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Atlas Obscura: The Flesh-Eating Beetles in Chicago's Field Museum

5/16/2022

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"Some of the hardest-working employees at the Field Museum in Chicago are flesh-eating beetles. These scavenger beetles, or dermestid beetles, efficiently clean the animal carcasses that the museum prepares to be specimens for its collection. To date, the beetles have helped researchers add about 80,000 migratory birds to the Field Museum's growing database."
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