Yes,without a doubt. Have experienced it many times with my own animals. I think it is a well known fact that animals experience many emotions including grief.
when my dog,midnight, had her puppies probably back in 06 she accidentally killed the runt of the liter. She cried for him because she killed him. And my other dog, had puppies by the same father, and the same liter, so she broke off and took the runt of hers. And she raised it as her own. So yes they can mourn just like us.
Not sure if all do, but most certainly some do ... perhaps they all do ... our surviving dog definitely 'moped' for about a month after the 'senior one' died.
Yes, but not just like us. The grief (and other emotions) that animals experience is a very limited version of that experienced by humans. It also does not come with the understanding that humans are capable of, which for us can make that grief more profound or can comfort us.
Last year my cat Ebene(I spell Ebony different) and three of his sister saw their little sister got ran over by a tractor on April first. Every time a tractor come by Ebene would runaway from them, now I'm going to cry just thinking about my cat. It breaks my heart when I see Ebene like that.
My cats brother went missing a few years ago ('hunters' kill them in my area) and she called and called for him, and looked everywhere for him, for about 2 weeks. Was sad. None of my other cats every shared a bond like they did.
Some sure appear to , Seen dead ducks and the mate would guard the corpse till it rotted . The same for Canada Geese if a mate is shot ( mate for life ) will circle back to aid ,. Hunters claim they are trying to get killed .
I've lost count of how many times I've read stories about an animal showing grief over the death of an owner or companion. I have 4 dogs, and the Boxer and Yellow Lab are really close. Close to the point that if something happened to one of them, I assume the other one would go soon after from a broken heart.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/...
HIS DOG DROPPED DEAD AT HOME!
A friend from Zimbabwe would describe the behavior of cows after one was butchered. The procession must be described as a form of funeral ceremony.
And I have heard other stories as well. So there is no doubt in my mind that animals grieve.