Animals grieve but they grieve differently than humans. This is common sense because human beings are sentient. With sentience comes an understanding of existing or not existing in its more philosophical form. Being mindful of the cosmos, life and death, even without experiencing death is an attribute of sentient beings. Humans can understand what death means and understand what it means not to be. This existential awareness intensifies one’s grief when death occurs.
Animals do experience grief but on a much smaller scale. Animal grief is based off experience and reaction. While the animal understands non functionality of the another, it still does not fully grasp the core concept of existence vs non existence. They may miss, mourn, but the deeper forms of existential grief do not exist. In some ways this may be a blessing. Ignorance is may be bliss, but due to sentience human beings are equipped with a deeper understanding of the universe, existence itself and death. Understanding death itself is a burden humanity carries alone on earth.
The article, “What Does Animal Grief Tell Us About How They Understand Death?” by Justin Gregg looks deeper at how animals mourn but also their limitations in fully understanding the existential nature of death. He states,
“It’s important to understand, however, that just because a dolphin can recognize death, it does not mean she understands her own mortality. Or that all living things must die. These are two additional levels of understanding that nonhuman animals lack. According to Monsó, “a very sophisticated notion of personal mortality also incorporates the notions of inevitability, unpredictability, and causality.”
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