Mother Elephant Lashes Out When Rangers Try To Pick Up Her Dead Baby’s Body

Elephants are remarkable in the way they form strong bonds with each other, grieving the deaths of their family members much like we do.

And as you know if you’ve experienced the loss of a loved one, grief inspires strong, gut-wrenching emotions including intense anger — something this heartbroken mother was definitely familiar with after her baby died. Forest rangers in South India recently ventured into the Nilgiris Reserve to retrieve the body of her dead calf for a post-mortem, but they had to temporarily abandon their plans when she made it clear it wasn’t going to happen.

Whenever the rangers got too close to the calf’s body, its mother charged at them. Even other elephants stood guard and charged as well.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/1624068.html

(via Daily Mail)

The rangers eventually decided to reschedule the post-mortem, hoping the elephants would leave the area in a few days. It sounds to me like Mom still needed some time with her baby before saying goodbye.