The Elephant Graveyard in Lion King

umm...elephant graveyards were a thing long before the Lion King movie came out.


You could have 3 explanations:
1- Older elephants migrate to one spot when they die
2- Elephants carry the bones of their dead to a place when they die (elephants have been seen carrying bones of elephants before)
3- Elephants may just stick together in droughts more than other animals and die together/their bones are larger and take longer to decompose than other animals...

Think of it like this:

Why do humans designate props of land for burial? Disney humanizes animals to entertain children (and adults). Disney animals do what humans do - they designate land to be used strictly for burials/death.

Also, I grew up on a farm. We had a livestock graveyard that looked very similar to the elephant graveyard in the Lion King.

Whenever a cow, horse, or pig would die, we'd tie a chain around it's lifeless neck, attach the chain to a tractor, and drag that body across the pastures and creeks to the "Animal Graveyard". The Animal Graveyard is in a small grove of trees next to a river and has been used for over 100 years by generations of family farmers. When you walk into the Animal Graveyard, it's about an acre of sun bleached bones and tall grass under peaceful trees.

That Animal Graveyard was one of our favorite places to play hide and seek when we were children.

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The Lion King didn't make up Elephant Graveyards. Elephants actually have funerals and borderline religious practices. They are also obsessed with other elephant bones when they come across them. There is precedence in the species itself for elephant graveyards to actually exist.

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Perhaps humans aren't the only intelligent species on Earth...

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Also, I grew up on a farm. We had a livestock graveyard that looked very similar to the elephant graveyard in the Lion King.

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The frick kind of farm you running, Killz?

The saying "memory like an elephant" is derived from the theory that elephants remember exactly where they were born. When they feel their impending death (obviously not by poacher or lion attack, etc) due to natural causes, they are said to make the journey back to the location of their birth.

Abiding by this notion, the "graveyard" can also be viewed as the source of their lives, thus giving a nod to the theme of the film..the Circle of Life.

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The saying "memory like an elephant" is derived from the theory that elephants remember exactly where they were born. When they feel their impending death (obviously not by poacher or lion attack, etc) due to natural causes, they are said to make the journey back to the location of their birth.

Abiding by this notion, the "graveyard" can also be viewed as the source of their lives, thus giving a nod to the theme of the film..the Circle of Life.

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Great reply.

They also remember exactly the spot their family members die and will travel across continents to revisit the locations.

They are some seriously fricking cool animals. frick poachers.

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Perhaps humans aren't the only intelligent species on Earth...

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Perhaps that's been very obvious for a long time.

LINK

elephants have graveyards.