As mourners carried the coffin of a deceased resident of an Egyptian village in Fayoum Governorate, a buffalo - owned by the deceased - walked behind them, making sounds resembling wailing and crying for him.
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Reactions to these scenes, which were reported by Egyptian news sites and widely circulated on Egyptian social media, varied between those who saw them as staged and those who described them as "loyalty that is not unusual from an animal and has been documented in previous cases."
He continues: "I witnessed this relationship during my daily interactions with the animals on the farm. They know who takes care of them, and they become confused when an unfamiliar face enters the place."
Scientific evidence that can be relied upon
Although the available studies did not address the specific case of death, and the extent to which buffalo understand the meaning of their owner's death in the same way as humans, Reda believes that other studies provide a scientific basis that can be relied upon. He says, "One study proved that cows and buffalo can not only visually distinguish between people they know and strangers, as we observe daily during our work on the farm, but they can also link a person's face to their voice."
This means that they are able to retain information about human identity through more than one sense, which, in his opinion, explains the attachment of these animals to their owners, to the point that we cannot rule out their feeling of sadness at their separation.
The absence of studies does not negate the behavior.
While research has not specifically addressed the behavior of cows and buffalo when separated from their owners, studies conducted on pets can provide a scientific basis that makes us not rule out the existence of the same feelings in other animals.
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