Asian elephants bury their calves with their legs poking out of the ground, researchers have observed. The calves were 1 year old or less and were transported to premade burials of sorts — irrigation drains on tea estates in India — by herd members, before being placed in holes and covered in soil.
In a study published Feb. 26 in the Journal of Threatened Taxa, researchers documented five calf burials among Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in the eastern Himalayan floodplains of northern West Bengal.
