'A window into its soul': The rare elephant behaviour that reveals the depths of their emotions

The winner of the 2026 Wildlife Photographer of the Year captures a rarely seen elephant behaviour, revealing the complexity of their emotional lives.

Photographer Federico Veronesi witnessed a heartbreaking scene while following a herd of elephants trudging along a dry riverbed in the Namibian desert in September 2025.

He encountered a female elephant carrying a stillborn calf, its tiny legs wrapped around her trunk and its limp body dangling in the air. 

"It was an intimate moment, almost spiritual," Veronesi recalls. "The baby was still completely intact and soft. It hadn't stiffened up yet, so it was clearly born in the night, or maybe just a few hours before."

At first sight, the poignant scene appeared to show a mother's grief. But as Veronesi would later find out, the rare behaviour he was witnessing had a surprising twist that revealed an even more complex sensitivity than it first seemed.

Veronesi followed the herd for several hours and captured some incredibly striking photos, one of which (see the image below) won the grand title prize at the 2026 Wildlife Photographer of the Year, run by the Natural History Museum in London.

The female elephant carried the calf for hours, occasionally setting it down to feed or drink, before picking it up again and continuing her journey along the Huab River, Veronesi says. "I thought, 'This is such a sad scene but it needs to be seen by people.' This photo makes it clear how much these elephants suffer, how they have complex feelings, which people perhaps don't associate with animals."

Veronesi eventually found out that the elephant was not carrying her own stillborn calf. "She's not the mother," says Christin Winter, conservation programme director at Elephant Human Relations Aid (EHRA), a non-profit working to protect Namibia's desert elephants.

This female, now aged 14, lost her own calf two years ago. Since then, she has been seen carrying the stillborn calves of other elephants on four separate occasions, says Winter. It's the first time that this behaviour has been documented in the area, she adds.

This revelation "certainly adds another layer to the depth of these creatures' emotions", says Veronesi. "It's even more poignant how this female has been behaving like that after her loss, as if she is trying to reconnect with her own calf and still not giving up on that loss after many years."

There are a few theories as to why the elephant carried the calf for such a long time. The behaviour may be some kind of "emotional processing", Winter says.

"Perhaps it was a way [for her] to process the death and not being able to let go just yet, perhaps she was traumatised by losing her calf and that's why she snaps into this behaviour every time one dies." She may also have been trying to protect the calf's body from predators, Winter adds.

Veronesi's photos offer a glimpse into the lives of Namibia's 150 hardy desert elephants that reside along five riverbeds in the Namib Desert and migrate long distances in search of food and water, feeding on the seedpods of Ana trees (Faidherbia albida) or on grass in the floodplains.

They are not a unique elephant species, but rather an ecotype: a population that has adapted to the arid environment through learned behaviours rather than genetic adaptations, similar to Namibia's desert lions that live along the Skeleton Coast. "It's their knowledge that really makes them special and also very vulnerable, because once that knowledge is gone, it can't be readily replaced," says Winter.

The population has been steadily declining over the past 20 years, says Winter. This is partly due to environmental stress, in particular long periods of drought, but is largely because of heightened conflict with humans, according to Winter.

"The conflict is mostly about water." Elephants will come into farms and push over water tanks, pull up pipes and break pumps, "so the tolerance of people towards elephant presence isn't particularly high", she says. "These stories go deep and live on for a very long time."

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The mortality rate of newborn calves is a major concern, says Winter. "It is extremely high and very scary." Just two calves survived out of a total of 16 between 2014 and 2022, she says.

One theory as to why so many desert elephant calves are dying is that they are born premature, "because the females are not fit enough to carry them full term", Winter says. This may be due to the chronic stress from conflict with humans, she says. Research shows that elephants can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in response to conflict with humans. 

Whenever the EHRA team comes across stillborn calves, they're very small, Winter adds. Typically, a healthy newborn calf [weighs] between 100 and 120kg (220-265lb), she says. The stillborn calves, meanwhile, are about 60-65kg (132-143lb).

EHRA is working with Daniella Chusyd, an elephant expert and assistant professor from Indiana University Bloomington, to analyse how environmental factors as well as chronic stress may be impacting Namibia's desert elephants. They are currently collecting dung samples to test for heavy metals and forever chemicals (such as PFAS), and to check the elephants' thyroid and cortisol hormones, as part of a project running until 2028.

"We also want to [determine] the degree of inbreeding in this population, compared to other populations, and whether the calves that survive have a different parental pedigree to those that died," says Chusyd. 

Joyce Poole, a leading expert on the African savannah elephant and founder of the conservation non-profit Elephant Voices, describes Veronesi's photos as "really harrowing". She has witnessed a similar reaction of a mother elephant to her stillborn infant in Kenya.

"She did not carry it but rather tried to lift it and then stood and defended it for two days," Poole says.

She hopes that the photos will make people realise "that elephants are capable of grief and suffering".

Elephants appear to experience grief when a companion dies. They have been observed visiting the remains of family members and strangers alike, touching their bones and standing beside the remains for long periods in the manner of a vigil.

"Desert elephants are being pushed to the brink of extinction, not just by climate change but by the trophy hunting permits allowed by the Namibian government," says Poole. "We need to do more to prevent their trauma." 

For Veronesi, the interaction between the female elephant and the stillborn was "almost human[like] behaviour".

"This is why I thought it was such an incredible moment to witness," he says. "My message is that every individual elephant is a creature worthy of understanding and conserving. We have to not only conserve the species, but the wellbeing of each individual."

The photographer hopes that his images "open a small window into the elephant's soul and the depth of their feelings".

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