Merle, Dogs, other canines, and many other predators bury bodies to preserve them so they can eat them later.
But...if after they buried them they released balloons or lit candles I could be wrong... ...Bill! --- In [email protected], Merle Lester <merlewiitpom@...> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > >The question I (jrf) have is whether this behavior on the part of the living > >dog is burying another dog because the dog is dead and it is better that > >dead dogs be buried rather than just lying on the top of the ground. That > >could be anthropomorphic projection. The alternative hypothesis is that dogs > >frequently bury food to eat later. If one feeds a dog to satiety and then > >gives the dog a beef bone with meat on it, the dog will almost certainly > >bury the beef bone if given access to the outside where there is dirt. In > >burying a bone, which might qualify as what some ethologists call "action > >sequences," there are three different coordinated motor patterns used. One > >is a running type motion of the front paws that creates the hole in the > >ground, second is the placement of the bone in the ground with the mouth, > >and third is the behavior seen on the video, which is a forward shoving > >motion of the face that pushes the dirt back into the hole. What was > >different > in this video compared to burying a bone with meat on it is that the only > behavior used was the forward shoving motion of the face that pushes the > dirt. Instead of covering a bone with meat in a hole, the dirt was covering a > dead dog that was lying on the surface of the dirt. I suspect that one could > do some experimentation to figure out what was motivating the dog's behavior: > a sense of reverence for a deceased member of the species, or an instinctual > behavior to bury a large piece of meat. > > > > > >To see the video, go to > >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rrCnUN5LN0&feature=youtu.be > > > > > >Mark Bekoff reports that he has observed a fox "bury" another dead fox > >killed by a cougar (mountain lion) in the wild. See > >http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/200907/fox-cougar-and-funeral > > > > > > > >Regards, > >Jay R. Feierman > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
