On Elephant's grief

"Consider a scene. On the edge of the savanna, an elephant rots. The cow had been sick for a week, stumbling, alone, over the hot plain. Ten days ago, it fell in the dust and died. Now its flesh has decomposed.  Only the large skeleton recalls the mammoth's grandeur. A herd lurches near to the bones. The pack incomposed of females, all related, led by the matriarch. They'vehad no prior to contact with the dead beast.

They stand over the corpse. With theur trunks, they gently probe the bones, seizing choice remains, turning them in the sun, then dropping them. Eventually, each picks up a bone or tusk and carries it hundreds of yards away. "

Eric G. Wilson , Everyone Loves a Good TrainWreck, 2012