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Unexplainable

Is animal grief real?

Unexplainable

Vox

Life Sciences, Science, Natural Sciences

4.62.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A dog on its owner’s grave. A killer whale carrying around its dead calf. A goose that isolates when its mate dies. These behaviors in animals may look like human mourning, but should scientists call them "grief"? (First published in 2023) Guests: Jennifer Vonk, comparative/cognitive psychologist at Oakland University; Jessica Pierce, bioethicist and author of several books about animals; Susana Monsó, animal ethicist and a philosopher and author of Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And please email us! ⁠⁠⁠⁠unexplainable@vox.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ We read every email. Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/members⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:02.7

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0:07.3

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0:10.2

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0:17.5

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0:23.3

In 2018, media outlets started covering the story of a killer whale.

0:28.5

This week, there's been a lot of whale news.

0:31.1

This killer whale had had a baby, a calf.

0:34.4

Then, soon after the birth, that calf died.

0:40.8

And the killer whale started to do something unusual. For 17 days, she's been carrying her dead calf on her back. For hundreds of kilometers,

0:47.8

a thousand miles. I say the orca is laboring through the water as she carries the calf either by

0:53.7

one fin or pushing it through the water on her head.

0:57.9

News anchors, politicians, lots of people commented on this situation.

1:03.8

And many of them had a specific word for the behavior of this whale.

1:09.7

They called it grief.

1:11.9

We saw a mother's grief.

1:13.8

The grieving mom just couldn't let her go.

1:16.2

They have grief.

1:17.2

They feel grief.

1:18.0

These mothers, just like humans do.

1:20.1

They're huge mammals.

...

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