The world has been watching the beautiful Bald Eagles, Jackie and Shadow and their triplet eaglet family thanks to the Friends of Big Bear Valley in California. Due to a recent snowstorm, one of the eaglets passed. It was a heartbreaking experience for many who had been watching the family grow. Jackie was recorded vocalizing, and this was interpreted as part of her grieving process. No Doubt Animal Grief!
We can thank Dr Jane Goodall for many, many things regarding how we view animals. In 1972 one of the most important observations Goodall made was witnessing the child, Flint, of an older female chimpanzee, Flo, going back to Flo’s body after she had passed and pulling on her hand in an attempt to make her groom him. Goodall watched him climb up a tree alone to the nest where he and his mother slept. Flint had become codependent on Flo after the death of his younger brother, Flame, at six months. Goodall wrote that within a month of his mother’s passing, Flint, having refused food, died of grief.
Animal mothers who have their young taken from them on industrial farms having been raised for food, experience deep mourning as do those in the public display industry such as water park captives whose young are sold to other parks.
There are many stories of animal grief that some of us have witnessed ourselves or that we have read about. These experiences are reminders that animals are sentient. We know animals grieve. This is not an emotion exclusive to humans.
Jackie and Shadow reminded us that animals grieve. We grieved with them and are reminded that many animal parents without names, and without cameras, grieve too.
Photo Credits:
1) Eaglets. Big Bear Valley, California, March 2025. Photo ©Friends of Big Bear Valley
2) Flo, the dominant matriarch of the Chimps of Gombe, Photo ©Hugo Van Lawick
3) Jane Goodall and Flint (1964), the first chimp to be born at Gombe after Goodall’s arrival in 1960. Photo ©Hugo Van Lawick
4) Veal Calf, Veal Farm, Spain. Photo ©Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media
See more stories of animals in Animal Culture Magazine. Get it HERE.
ANIMAL CELEBRATION WORKSHOPS
I offer workshops that celebrate animals and nature. If you feel grief from animal loss, my Animal Celebration of Life 2-session workshop helps channel that energy to positive reflection of your emotion. The Journaling for Animals and Nature workshop is a single-session workshop focusing on journaling to channel your emotions to a positive and constructive ideal.