It’s pretty obvious that animals can feel grief. Dogs mourn their owners and each other, and cats mourn the food they were supposed to get 20 minutes ago but didn’t because their human servant tried to sleep in on a Saturday. But one thing that animals don’t do is hold funerals. Cats would probably think it’s sign of personal weakness.
Actually, some animals do hold funerals, and one startling example of an animal that does this is the humble magpie. According to The Telegraph, magpies have been observed engaging in behavior that not only looks like grief, but also a lot like a memorial service. A magpie that encounters the body of another magpie might approach it and peck at it carefully, as if saying, “Frank! Frank! Wake up!” If the body doesn’t respond, the magpie will fly off, and then come back a few minutes later with a few blades of grass, which it will lay next to the body. But researchers haven’t just observed a single bird doing this — other magpies will join in the ritual, each one bringing its own offering of grass. Then the magpies will stand next to the body for a little while before flying away.
This behavior has also been observed in crows and ravens, so not only is it not an anomaly, it isn’t even a behavior that’s confined to a single species. Anthropomorphism rules.