Comments on: Is This Mother Giraffe Mourning Her Dead Baby? http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012/08/is-this-mother-giraffe-mourning-her-dead-baby/ Keeping You Current Sat, 25 May 2013 13:28:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: Lee Kalwat http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012/08/is-this-mother-giraffe-mourning-her-dead-baby/comment-page-1/#comment-498 Lee Kalwat Wed, 22 Aug 2012 23:46:33 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/?p=2933#comment-498 We raise suri alpacas, and as far as we're concerned, alpaca mothers most certainly mourn the death of their babies. It's heartbreaking to watch; as with the giraffe, they try to rouse the baby, anxious and sad; for days afterward the mother will be searching for the baby we took away to bury. It may not meet the scientific definition of mourning (whatever that definition may be), but it certainly meets our personal idea of a mother in mourning. We raise suri alpacas, and as far as we’re concerned, alpaca mothers most certainly mourn the death of their babies. It’s heartbreaking to watch; as with the giraffe, they try to rouse the baby, anxious and sad; for days afterward the mother will be searching for the baby we took away to bury.

It may not meet the scientific definition of mourning (whatever that definition may be), but it certainly meets our personal idea of a mother in mourning.

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