The rare elephant behaviour that reveals the depths of their emotions

Photographer Federico Veronesi captured a striking scene in September 2025 of a female desert elephant in Namibia carrying a stillborn calf for hours, an image that won the 2026 Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The elephant, now 14, is not the calf’s mother: she lost her own calf two years earlier and has been observed carrying other stillborn calves on four separate occasions. Conservationists interpret the behaviour as a form of emotional processing or a protective act, and leading elephant experts describe it as evidence of grief and complex social bonds; elephants are known to visit and tend the remains of dead companions. Veronesi sees the interaction as almost human-like, and hopes the photos foster understanding of individual elephant welfare as well as species conservation.

Namibia’s desert elephants number roughly 150 and are an ecotype adapted by learned behaviours to arid riverbeds, but their population is declining from drought, human-wildlife conflict over water, and legal trophy hunting. Newborn mortality is alarmingly high - only two calves survived out of 16 born between 2014 and 2022 - and stillborns weigh about 60-65 kg versus 100-120 kg for healthy calves. Researchers are collecting dung samples through 2028 to test for heavy metals, PFAS, thyroid and cortisol levels and to assess inbreeding, seeking links between environmental stress, chronic trauma and reproductive failure.