Symposium Schedule | September 2026

09:25 - 11:40AM - INTRO & SESSION 1

​Chair: André Gonçalves

 

09:30 - Opening Remarks

           James Anderson, Kyoto University*​

09:40 - The Nature of Grief: Uncovering the Evolutionary Roots of Loss Across the Animal Realm

          Sarv Dashti, Kyoto University*

10:20 - Towards a Phylogenetic Comparative Thanatology

          Thomas A. Püschel, Oxford University

11:00 - Coffee Break

11:10 - Casting a wider net: Field Methodologies in Primate Thanatology

          Sayantan Das, University of Kannur

11:50 - 12:25: Break&Networking

 

12:30 - 13:30: Lunch Break

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13:30 - 14:30 - SESSION 2: Lightning Talks I

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14:30 - 16:45 - SESSION 3

Chair: Leanne Proops

 

14:30 - Behavioural Responses of Horses after Loss of an Equid Companion

          Claire Ricci-Bonot, Lincoln University

15:10 - 15:25 - Coffee Break

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15:25 - The Tail End of Life: How Animals Respond to Loss

         Jennifer Vonk, Oakland University*

16:05 - Death, social bonds, and primate thanatology: what can a collaborative database reveal?

        Thanatobase Research Group, University College London

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*Online Talk

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13:30 - 14:30AM - LIGHTNING TALKS I

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13:30 - Reactions of Wild Moor Macaques (Macaca maura) to a Deceased Adult Male Conspecific

           César  Rodriguez del Castillo, Universidad Veracruzana​

13:45 - Multi-site Analysis of Infant Corpse Carrying in Pan

          Reece Hammond, Oxford University

14:00 - Human Perspectives on Animal Grief and Loss

          Leanne Proops, University of Portsmouth

14:15 - Postmortem Attentive Behaviour in Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina)

          Jessica Harvey-Carroll, Swedish National Museum*

09:25 - 11:40 - INTRO & SESSION 4

Chair: Nachiketh Sharma

 

09:30 - The Island of the Living Dead: Insights into Death-Feigning as an Antipredator Defence in an Insular Population of Dice Snakes

         Vukašin Bjelica, University of Belgrade*

 

10:10 - Carrying the Dead: A Review of Postmortem Attentive Behavior in Marine Mammals and New Evidence from Leopard Seals

          Renato Borras-Chavez, Rhode Island University

10:50 - Beyond Deviancy: An Evolutionary Thanatological Approach to Informal Mortuary Behaviours in Holocene Turkana

          Sarah Paris, Cambridge University

11:30 - Coffee Break

11:40 - How Animals Mourn Documentary 

         In person viewing, UCL

12:30 - 13:30: Lunch Break

 

13:30 - 14:30 - SESSION 5: Lightning Talks II

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14:30 - 16:45 - SESSION 6

Chair: Alecia Carter

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14:30 - Death-Feigning and Animal Concepts

         Susana Monsó & Laura Danón,  

UNED & University of Córdoba

15:10 - 15:25 - Coffee Break

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15:25 - Impact of social loss on the Ranging, Behavior, and Physiology of wild Chimpanzees

          Abigail McCain, George Washington University*

16:05 - Neuroethology of Bumblebee Undertaking Behaviors

          Stephanie  Yiru Zhu, Washington University 

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13:30 - 14:30AM - LIGHTNING TALKS II

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13:30 - Beyond the Body: Understanding the Living Through the Dead, A Bioarchaeology Approach

           Katie A. Hemer, University College London​

13:45 - Understanding Death in the Animal World: Conceptual, Aconceptual or Something in Between?

          André Gonçalves, Indianapolis Zoological Society

14:00 - Do Capuchins Recognize Death in Howler Infants?

          Zoë Goldsborough, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior*
14:15 - Understanding Without Concepts: A Behavior-Based Account of Animal Death Cognition

          Qiushi Huang, University of Colorado Boulder*

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