The idea of death is something we're confronted with every day.

In the headlines, in true crime podcasts and violent movies, when we realize that yet again we have managed to kill a house plant.

Many of us prefer to avoid dwelling on our own eventual demise, but the fact remains that we

humans are keenly aware of death as a concept. But are we the only ones? From KERA in Dallas,

this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. For a long time, we allowed ourselves to believe that an awareness of the possibility of death was one of those things that made humans unique.

There's no way of knowing if a bear or a snake or a bird goes about its daily business knowing life is fleeting,

and these creatures don't seem to mourn members of their own species who die in ways

that look recognizable to us. But if we go beyond looking for human-like rituals among other

animals experiencing death, my guest finds significant evidence in numerous animals that they

indeed have at least a minimal concept of death. Susanna Munso is Associate Professor of Philosophy

in the Department of Logic History and Philosophy of Science at the National Distance Education

University in Madrid. Her book is called Playing Possum, How Animals Understand Death. Susanna,

welcome to think. Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure

to be here. Before we get into what other species comprehend about death, I mean, we should

acknowledge it can be a challenging concept even for humans, right? Understanding the physical

cause of death doesn't answer why for us. Yes, absolutely. I think this is something that I myself forget sometimes

because I've been working on this for so long

that I forget the emotional significance

that death has for us humans.

And it's happened to me more than once

that I've killed the mood of a dinner party

by talking about my research on these topics.

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