This is the tragic moment a grief-stricken mother elephant carries the limp body of her deceased calf to its final resting place in a powerful funeral ritual.
Sad footage illustrates the mourning elephant taking her calf towards an acacia tree in the Torra reserve in Damaraland.
Other members of the herd unite and walk together in silence as part of a respectful parade for the late elephant.
The calf was less than a week old when it died after water dried up in the region.
While other younger elephants continued to play in the reserve, many of the more senior members all turn and stroll towards the tree where the calf is laid to rest.
Safari guides told Corriere Della Sera they'd never seen elephants performing a funeral ritual before.
The two rivers serving the Torra reserve have both run dry in recent weeks with the wells also out of order.
After the ceremony, the elephants continued as a group in hope of discovering water.
Elephants have been known to observe funeral ceremonies, frequently spreading branches over a corpse soon after death.
They also have been seen raising their feet above a dead body as a mark of remembrance or scattering their remains.
This is heartbreaking, and a clear reminder of the importance, and respect for our families, and some animals are amazing, and we as human beings should learn from them.
Elephants are such beautiful creatures, and this is so painful to watch. They're living, breathing souls who feel pain just like humans, and we should respect all animals.
Elephants are extremely intelligent emotional creatures, and we should be doing more to protect them and understand them. They're beautiful animals and it's just a disgrace we don't treat them with respect.
Animals are far more intelligent than we give them credit for and as human beings, we're more stupid than we believe we are, and hopefully, these creatures will outlive the human species.
Perhaps we should spare a thought for those beautiful creatures and indeed all the others in the world, whose sheer existence is endangered every time a human being buys stuff that they don't need or want. Stuff that has to be manufactured, needs to use the world's resources in order to do so, usually not caring what habitat is sacrificed on the altar of human selfishness. Think twice before buying something new. Do you actually need it, or just want it?
There are so many amazing species in this world.
We, humans, are meant to be at the top of the food chain but time after time we see animals showing more care, more respect, more compassion and more openness towards each other than we ever do either to them or to ourselves. We may be the most evolved species but when you see things like this, I just can't accept that we're the better species.
No creature (human beings) on the planet is more brutal, more violent, or capable of deceit, or capable of killing the world. Every other creature is a blessing to the planet, and living according to nature's plan - we're the only deviant species.
These animals have very similar sentience as us humans, yet we treat them so differently, but they're such a beautifully evolved species, yet some societies kill them just in order to collect what, in effect, toenail clippings, and then you have to think about the calves being torn away from their mother's and butchered.
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