We already know that whales and dolphins are pretty intelligent.
Photo from NOAA Photo Library/Flickr.
Bottlenose dolphins use sponges as protective face masks to probe the sea floor without damaging their snoots.
Orca whales have unique teamwork-reliant hunting strategies, like creating waves to wash seals off ice floes. And different orca whale populations seem to have their own distinct cultures too.
A new report suggests that those smarts might extend to emotions too.
In fact, scientists think that whales and dolphins might mourn and grieve just like humans do.
A recent paper in the Journal of Mammalogy documented this apparent mourning behavior in seven species of whale and dolphin, including spinner dolphins, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, orca whales, and sperm whales.
Spinner dolphins are named after their amazing, acrobatic spins. Photo from iStock.
Basically, scientists noticed that adult whales and dolphins tried to care for and nurture their dead young, a behavior that might represent a form of grieving.
"They are mourning," the paper's co-author Melissa Reggente told National Geographic. "They are in pain and stressed. They know something is wrong."
In one instance, in the Red Sea off Egypt, a small boat of biologists saw an adult Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin swimming, pushing at, and touching a recently deceased juvenile dolphin.
The biologists watched for a while before eventually fixing a rope around the juvenile and towing it ashore, where it was buried.
Even then, though, the adult dolphin followed them, swimming around and touching the juvenile until the water became too shallow for the dolphin to go on. But even after the juvenile had been buried, the adult stayed around the area.
We've seen what might be mourning behavior in other animals before.
An elephant at a zoo in Emmen, Netherlands, mourns the death of a friend. Olaf Kraak/AFP/Getty Images.
Elephants have been observed gently touching the bones of the dead. In his book "Elephant Destiny," elephant researcher Martin Meredith retold a story about an elephant family weeping and covering a recently dead matriarch with branches.
We've observed nurturing dead young in other animals too, like chimpanzees, but also in animals such as giraffes and manatees as well.
This new research is unfortunately pretty timely, considering that many species of whale and dolphin have a lot to grieve about lately.
Overzealous whaling in the 17th-20th centuries drove many whale species to the brink of extinction. Today, whaling is rare. But pollution, industrialization, and climate change still threaten these kinds of sea creatures.
Plus, eight of the 13 big whale species are currently endangered or critically endangered, including blue whales and fin whales. Many others are threatened or vulnerable.
Ascribing human emotions to animals is tricky, but we already know they're complex, emotional creatures.
Photo from iStock.
Though I'd wager that nearly all pet owners can name times when their animals were anxious or joyful or mourning, scientists are usually hesitant to pin human emotions on animals.
This is mostly because our own human emotions are so tied into our culture that it'd be a little presumptuous to think animal emotions would look or feel exactly like ours.
But it would probably be hard to find someone arguing that big, social animals like whales don't feel something.
This report adds weight to the idea that grief is a common and widespread behavior in long-lived, social species.
The same parts of our brains that process emotions are shared by a wide range of animals.
And if animals really do feel emotions, maybe we need to think more about how we're treating the other species on the planet too.
Nailed it. 
Watch out, she knows karate!
Mom hugging crying daughter
Dad kissing child on cheek
Mom comforting daughter
Lucille Ball was a massive star, but perhaps best known for the show 'I Love Lucy'By CBS Television - Public Domain
Do you think its better to have a 'living room family' or a 'bedroom family'?
Where you spend time says a lot about your family.
A family having fun together in the living room.
TikTok user alexxx1915 recently posted a short video with the caption: "I just learned the term 'living room family' and I never understood why my kids never played in their rooms when I always did as a kid." She briefly shows her kids hanging out in the living room with their pet dog and some toys scattered around the floor, before panning to her own face and giving a sort of sentimental look. The simple, ten-second clip struck a huge nerve with parents, racking up over 25 million views and thousands of heartfelt comments.
What are "living room families" and "bedroom families"?
This idea has been going around for a while on social media.
Simply put, a living room family is a family that congregates in the living room, or any common space in the household. Kids play in the same space where the adults relax — and things are often messy, as a result. Everyone interacts with each other and spends lots of time together. Bedrooms are reserved mostly for sleeping and dressing.
A bedroom family, on the other hand, is where the kids spend more time in their rooms. They play there, watch TV, and maybe even eat meals. Typically, the main rooms of the house are kept neat and tidy — you won't find a lot of toys scattered about — and family time spent together is more structured and planned ahead rather than casual.
"Living room families" has become the latest aspirational term on TikTok. Everyone wants to be a living room family!
The implication of being a bedroom family, or having 'room kids', is that perhaps they don't feel safe or comfortable or even allowed to take up room in the rest of the house, or to be around the adults. "I remember my brother coming round once and he just sat in silence while watching my kids play in the living room. After a while he looked at me and said 'It's so nice that your kids want to be around you'" one commenter said on alexxx1915's video.
"I thought my kids hated their rooms 🥺 turns out they like me more" said another. "You broke a generational curse. Good job mama!" said yet another.
There's so much that's great about having a family that lives out in the open — especially if you were raised feeling like you had to hide in your room.
In my household, we're definitely a living room family. We're around each other constantly, and the house is often a mess because of it. Learning about this term makes me feel a little better that my kids want to be around us and feel comfortable enough to get their 'play mess' all over the living room.
The mess is a sign of the love and comfort we all share together.
But the big twist is that it's also perfectly fine if your kids — and you! — like a little more solitary time.
Being a 'bedroom family' is actually perfectly OK.
There's a similar discourse that took place last year about living room parents vs bedroom parents. The general consensus seemed to be that it was better to be a living room parent, who relaxed out in the open versus taking alone time behind closed doors.
But it really doesn't have to be one or the other, and neither is necessarily better. Making your kids feel relegated to their room is, obviously, not great. It's not a good thing if they feel like they're not allowed to exist in and play in the rest of the house. But if they just like hanging out in their room? Nothing wrong with that at all! And same goes for parents.
Alone time is important for parents and kids alike, and everyone needs different amounts of it to thrive. Kids with certain special needs, like being on the autism spectrum, may be absolutely thrilled to spend lots of time in their rooms, for example.
In 2023, there was a similar debate on TikTok where parents sounded off on whether they were bedroom parents or living room parents. In this situation, the parents spent the majority of the time in their bedroom, while the kids were in the living room, or they spend time in the living room with their kids. According to Marissa Kile, the video's creator, this made the parents' bedroom feel like a "scared space" where the kids didn't feel comfortable.
This article originally appeared last year.