One of the behaviors that's been a long-held standard of what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom is that we mourn and hold funerals for our dead, instead of just stepping over them until they start to stink, like pretty much every other creature. However, an animal behavior expert from the University of Colorado has found that magpies also mourn their dead and even cover the fallen with foliage. So about that funeral standard....

From The Telegraph:

The discovery raises the debate about whether emotions are solely a human trait or whether they can be found in all animals.

Previous studies have suggested that gorillas also mourn their dead while rats have empathy and cats form friendships.

Dr Bekoff said he studied four magpies alongside a magpie corpse and recorded their behaviour.

"One approached the corpse, gently pecked at it, just as an elephant would nose the carcase of another elephant, and stepped back. Another magpie did the same thing, " he said.

"Next, one of the magpies flew off, brought back some grass and laid it by the corpse. Another magpie did the same. Then all four stood vigil for a few seconds and one by one flew off."

After publishing an account of the funeral he received emails from people who had seen the same ritual in magpies, ravens and crows.

"We can't know what they were actually thinking or feeling, but reading their action there's no reason not to believe these birds were saying a magpie farewell to their friend," he wrote in the journal Emotion, Space and Society.

Thanks to Dirtbag Kingdom for the link.