By eating and defecating vegetation in fields, the soil could be improved for the next crop. Elephant plop could even be used for such high priced crops as mushrooms. The relationship can be compared between species toward communication about family relatinships. The corpse and places of death are of importance to humans and elephants. 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 of a family member.
Attempts to assist a dying elephant may persist long after death. Elephant and human burrial rites can be compared toward communication about death and dying. ODOR Frequent sniffing of the route by traveling humans or elephants points to a common olfactory element in the cognitive maps of humans and elephants and to olfactory marking. Elephant odor is concentrated at water holes, places of high food density, and along routes. Elephants and humans detect predators by smell and both detect prey plants or animals by smell.