Do Dolphins Grieve the Way Humans Do?

In a poignant display observed off the coast of Western Australia, a pod of dolphins has been seen surrounding a deceased calf, engaging in what researchers describe as a prolonged period of mourning. The footage, captured by the conservation group Geographe Marine Research, shows a grieving mother dolphin, named Fraggle, nudging her dead calf and attempting to keep it afloat.

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The term also extends to acts of caregiving towards sick, injured or dying members in a group.

This behavior, documented over an 11-day period, has resonated deeply with viewers, drawing thousands of responses that highlight the seemingly human-like emotional display. Rodney Peterson of Geographe Marine Research, who captured the drone footage, noted that the organization witnesses dolphins mourning annually. Capri Jolliffe, the group's head researcher, explained that such behaviors fall under the term 'epimeletic,' which describes caregiving actions towards sick, injured, or dying group members.

While scientists are cautious about attributing human emotions to animals, they express a strong confidence that dolphins and other highly social animals genuinely experience grief. Jolliffe explains that animals with high social cognition are more intelligent and, consequently, more vulnerable to mourning. She cited elephants, apes, canines, and other whale species as examples of animals known to exhibit similar epimeletic behaviors.

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Scientists, while reluctant to attribute human characteristics to animal behaviours, are fairly confident dolphins and other animals are genuinely experiencing bouts of grief "as humans know it" after loss.

Dolphins, in particular, invest significant energy into their offspring due to their low reproductive rates, forming strong bonds with their calves. Jolliffe highlighted that female dolphins carrying deceased offspring constitute 75% of all recorded instances of such mourning behavior among marine mammals. The standard duration for a dolphin to carry its deceased calf is typically between three and seven days, during which the pod remains close to the grieving mother, who often ceases feeding.

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Animals with high social cognition are recognised as being more intelligent and as a result more "vulnerable to mourning and grief".

This latest loss marks Fraggle's fourth observed bout of grief, having lost a previous calf in March of the previous year. The observations by Geographe Marine Research, based in Dunsborough, Western Australia, contribute to a growing body of evidence suggesting complex emotional lives within dolphin populations.

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Of all the observation of marine mammal species, female dolphins carrying deceased offspring account [for] 75 per cent of recorded cases.