The Animal Understanding of Death

What do animals understand about death? That question has become such an area of interest that it has a name—comparative thanatology. Dr. Susana Monso has written a number of books and articles on the animal understanding of death, with special attention to opossums and chimpanzees. In her books, Monso provides information about the physiological changes in the opossum when it “plays dead.”

In a Time magazine article, Dr. Monso gave accounts of animals dealing with death. She told of a newborn albino chimp that other chimps were afraid of. When the dominant male killed the baby chimp, the behavior of the chimpanzee troop changed dramatically to a display of curiosity. Other cases cited are an orca who carried her dead baby over 1000 miles for 17 days and a gorilla who was weaned but attempted to suckle from its dead mother’s breast.

Dr. Monso argues that the animal understanding of death differs from human understanding. She says our human bias affects our view of comparative thanatology, but she believes animals understand death in their own way. Are the chimp, orca, and gorilla displaying grief, or are we interpreting them in light of what humans would feel and do? Do carnivores have empathy for the herbivores they eat? Those questions reflect what Dr. Monso calls an intellectual anthropocentrism bias.

That bias is reflected in some humans who refuse to eat meat because they feel empathy for the animal that died. To suggest that you won’t eat anything requiring death means you won’t eat anything. If you eat a plant or the seed of the plant, something has to die. Death is part of the design of life, and life would be impossible if nothing died. Either everything would die of starvation, and Earth would become devoid of life, or animal populations would overfill the planet.

The biblical understanding is that the Creator of life gave humans a special place in the creation. In Genesis 9:1-3, God tells Noah that all animal life would have the fear of humans and that humans would be responsible for managing all of life. Verse 3 also equates animal life with plant life. “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you just like the green plant – I have given you all things.”

God gave only humans the ability to comprehend life after death. Animals’ understanding of the death of one of their kind is rooted in survival. We see this in the biblical discussion of this subject and the evidence available to all of us.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: “Animals Understand Death Too” in Time magazine for October 28, 2024