According to legend, when an elephant senses its impending death, it leaves its herd and travels to a barren, bone-filled wasteland.
So do dying elephants actually separate themselves from their herd to meet their maker among the bones of their predecessors? Explorers have spent centuries searching for these so-called “elephant graveyards.” but none have ever been found.
Elephants are unique in a lot of ways. One of those ways is that, unlike most mammals, elephants have a special relationship with their dead. Researchers have found that elephants show noticeable emotion — from actual crying to profound agitation — when they encounter the remains of other elephants, particularly the skulls and tusks. They treat the bones with unusual tenderness and will cradle and carry them for long periods of time and over great distances. When they come across the bones of other animals, they show no interest whatsoever. Not only can elephants distinguish the bones of other elephants from those of other animals like rhinoceroses or buffalo, but it appears they can recognize the bones of elephants they were once familiar with.
Probably the biggest argument against an elephant burial ground can be found in the way elephants treat their elders. An elephant wouldn’t want to separate itself from the comfort and protection of its herd during illness nor would a herd allow that behavior. Elephants give great respect to older member of their herd, turning to them as guiding leaders. They usually refuse to leave sick or dying older elephants alone, even if it means risking their own health and safety.
So where did the idea of an elephant graveyard start? It may have started as a way to explain the occasional discovery of large groupings of elephant carcasses. These have been found near water sources, where older and sickly elephants live in close proximity. And when an entire herd is wiped out by drought, or disease, the bones are often found all together at the herd’s watering hole.
There are a number of other explanations for large collections of elephant bones — pits of quicksand or bogs can trap a number of elephants and poachers have been known to slay entire herds of elephants for their ivory, leaving the carcasses behind.
One of the more interesting theories for mass elephant corpses comes from East Africa — the elephant deaths are thought to be the work of the mazuku, the Swahili word for “evil wind.” Scientists have found vents in the earth’s crust that emit carbon monoxide and other toxic gases. The poisonous air released from these vents is forceful enough to blow out a candle’s flame, and the remains of small animals and birds are frequently found nearby, but these vents aren’t powerful enough to kill groups of elephants — but, tales of the mazuku continue.
Today, the elephant graveyard isn’t any longer considered a destination for elephants — it’s more of a figure of speech that refers to a repository of useless or outdated items.
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