Ep. 1367: Thanatology - What Animals Think of Death

The Food Chain Radio

Susana Monso, Author, Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death

Every person thinks about where we all will eventually go, but no person knows for certain where we will go. This leads some people to think about the animals for which we have taken dominion, and wonder:

What do animals think about dying?

Up and down the food chain, it is eat and be eaten. This elemental fact gives rise among people to thanatology, which is the study of death.

Today we begin our Food Chain discussion with some concluding thoughts about thanatology from Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death, by Susana Monso.

“Scientists have been trying for a long time to find a characteristic that will definitively separate us from the other species. So far, all candidates have failed. Neither the use of tools, nor culture, morality, or rationality are exclusive to human beings. Nor is a concept of death. We’re not a unique species. We’re just another animal. And as such, we’re bodies that work until a certain point, but end up irreparably broken. Perhaps if we come to terms with the fact that we’re animals we may also reconcile with our own mortality.”

But before we can come to terms with the fact that we are just another animal, we must first find a way to step outside of our anthropocentric way of seeing life and death. And so we ask:

What do animals think about dying?

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