Elephants sniff the corpse, burry the dead, touch and handle bones extensively,scatter bones and shatter tusks. Elephants seem to display grief at the death ofa family member. Attempts to assist a dying elephant may persist long afterdeath. Elephant and human burrial rites can be compared towardcommunication about death and dying. ODOR Frequent sniffing of the route by traveling humans or elephants points to acommon olfactory element in the cognitive maps of humans and elephants andto olfactory marking.
Elephant odor is concentrated at water holes, places ofhigh food density, and along routes.
Elephants and humans detect predatorsby smell and both detect prey plants or animals by smell. Human nad elephantplaces of death are vividly marked with intense and persistent olfactory information. Olfaction is important to socially hunting human groups and to socially defending or counter-attacking elephant groups. The research was done with retired working elephants in Northern Thailandand with a six year old male. Four images were used, a circle, triangle, wavy line and cross.