Ideas worth spreading

Grief and love in the animal kingdom

3,530,388 views | Barbara J. King • TED2019

From mourning orcas to distressed elephants, biological anthropologist Barbara J. King has witnessed grief and love across the animal kingdom. In this eye-opening talk, she explains the evidence behind her belief that many animals experience complex emotions, and suggests ways all of us can treat them more ethically -- including every time we eat. "Animals don't grieve exactly like we do, but this doesn't mean that their grief isn't real," she says. "It is real, and it's searing, and we can see it if we choose."

From mourning orcas to distressed elephants, biological anthropologist Barbara J. King has witnessed grief and love across the animal kingdom. In this eye-opening talk, she explains the evidence behind her belief that many animals experience complex emotions, and suggests ways all of us can treat them more ethically -- including every time we eat. "Animals don't grieve exactly like we do, but this doesn't mean that their grief isn't real," she says. "It is real, and it's searing, and we can see it if we choose."

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Barbara J. King

Biological anthropologist, writer

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As a writer on animal cognition and emotion, Barbara J. King seeks to motivate us all to be kinder to the animals we share the planet with.

Barbara J. King | University of Chicago Press, 2013 | Book

How Animals Grieve

King sets out her definition of grief in animals, explains through colorful stories the scientific and case-study evidence for grief in species ranging from elephants to dogs, and links the presence of animal grief to love.

James R. Anderson, Paul Pettitt and Dora Biro | Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B, 2018 | Article

"Evolutionary thanatology: Impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals."

A collection of papers that takes a sweeping look at how organisms (human and non-human) deal, and have in the past dealt with, death, including emotionally and ritually.

Carl Safina | Picado, 2016 | Book

Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

How do we know that elephants, wolves, and orcas think and feel as they go about their daily lives? Safina’s fascinating in-the-field observations of these charismatic mammals provide a clear answer.

Jan A R A M van Hooff | YouTube, 2016 | Watch

"Jan van Hooff visits chimpanzee "Mama", 59 yrs old and very sick. Emotional meeting"

This clip went viral, and it’s clear to see why: it movingly shows an elderly, dying chimpanzee’s emotions when she rouses herself and recognizes an old friend who visits.

Frans de Waal | W. W. Norton & Company, 2019 | Book

Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves

An expanded account of Mama the chimpanzee’s deathbed goodbye by a well-known ethologist. De Waal offers stories of emotions expressed by monkeys, rats, birds, and more. We humans aren’t as unique as we like to think!

Barbara J. King | University of Chicago Press, 2017 | Book

Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat

As she does in her talk, King links recognition of how animals think and feel to how we treat them. With a focus on smart and engaging pigs, chickens, goats, cows, fish and her eternal favorite the octopus, King dives into the inner lives of animals that are often dismissed as only “food animals.”

Isa Leshko | University of Chicago Press, 2019 | Book

Allowed to Grow Old: Portraits of Elderly Animals from Farm Sanctuaries

Leshko spends time with and photographs elderly farm animals like chickens, horses, sheep, goats and cows. Each is named, and his or her unique personality described. These up-close glimpses of old animals are powerfully moving, especially because Leshko conveys the enormity of why these animals so rarely do reach an old age.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.