The group of grieving animals was spotted in India by a local forest ranger who saw an adult elephant walking out of the forest while carrying a dead calf with its trunk.
Following the leader of the group, who is presumed to be the mother of the dead calf, at least eight other elephants came out of the undergrowth before crossing the street where the mother laid the lifeless calf on the ground.
After the entire group gathered, the mama elephant once again picked up the calf before walking into the undergrowth on the other side of the street.
The heartbreaking moment that resembles a funeral procession was caught on camera and shared on Twitter by Parveen Kaswan of the Indian Foreign Service.
While it is unclear where the elephants were headed and what their final destination was, Mr. Kaswan is convinced that the giants were in the process of grieving for the dead calf.
“This will move you! Funeral procession of the weeping elephants carrying dead body of the child elephant. The family just don’t want to leave the baby behind,” the forest ranger wrote online.
Soon enough, the video went viral with thousands of people claiming elephants are emotional beings capable of grieving for their deceased loved ones.
Confirming their point are the experts of the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum, research, and educational complex, who explained that elephants take a lot of interest in grieving for their deceased relatives as well as in taking care of their bones.
In another heart-wrenching video taken this year, a calf was seen poking and shaking his mother after she was killed for wandering into an Indian village.
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