Mourning

As I was walking Clara this morning, I saw the saddest thing. We walked around the corner, and there was a female cardinal hopping around and trying to pick up a large bright red thing. As we got closer, I realized that the thing she was trying to pick up was the male cardinal, who was dead. I stood there watching her from a safe distance for a few minutes, and my eyes got all teary. She seemed so sad. It was as if she didn't believe he was really dead and was trying to get him to get up and fly again. Anytime someone would walk past, she would fly up into the tree right above her dead mate, and as soon as they passed, she would fly back down and continue her efforts to bring him back.

I tried doing a little research to see if birds mourn their dead, but I didn't find much. I did, however, find this blog posting, which I thought interesting and very similar to what I saw this morning:

"I'm not quite sure why this has haunted me all day, but it has. As I walking in to work today, I noticed a bit of bright red in the street ahead of me. As I got closer, I realized it was a beautiful male cardinal, lying dead in the middle of the street. His color was so vivid that it seemed just terribly wrong that he could be dead. I moved toward him. There wasn't anything I could do, but it seemed right to move him out of the road and onto the ground.
As I approached him, I also became aware of an insistent warbling. I thought I knew exactly what it was, but it took a while for me to peer into the branches above before I could spot her. But I finally did: The female mate of this dead cardinal, keening away.
After moving her dead mate, I could not linger, for I had to get to work. I wonder how long she stayed there and I wonder what was happening in her little cardinal brain. And I wished I could have done something more.
I'm tempted to write more and explicate this story into an allegory, but I will restrain myself. Let the story speak for itself."

So it seems that maybe cardinals really do mourn their dead. If so, it just proves that animals are far more complex than we give them credit for. Either way, it sure made an impact on my morning walk.