Footage Shows Raccoon Mourning The Loss Of His Best Friend
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Seeing a dead animal in the road is always going to tug at those heartstrings - even if you only spot something for a split second as you whizz past it on the motorway.
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It's a sad sight - but it's got to be even sadder when the roadkill is actually one of your buddies, as this poor little raccoon had to witness.
In the heartbreaking video, it looks as though the raccoon is mourning the loss of its friend, slumped over in the road before falling to the floor. It then slowly walks over to the body of the deceased and stands by it for a while.
The incident took place on 24 August in Durham, North Carolina, USA, when the person who filmed the footage was on their way to work.
"I was leaving for work and saw a raccoon praying over his buddies body," they told ViralHog.
Commenting on the video, many YouTubers passed on their condolences to the poor guy and his late pal.
"Poor fella," one person said.
Someone else referred to the reaction as 'crazy', while another simply wrote: "RIP raccoon."
"Ay mi corazoncito ," someone else commented, which roughly translates as 'Oh my little heart'. We know, man, we know.
And it seems raccoons aren't the only animals to wear their heart on their sleeves when it comes to mourning a friend.
One woman, Sarah Simmons, recently photographed the aftermath of the death of a New Forest pony, which had been killed by a car. She'd spotted several of its fellow ponies stood at the scene looking over their friend, and decided to photograph the heartbreaking moment.
Simmons then shared the image online in the hope that it would act as a wake-up call for driver so slow down around ponies and horses on the road.
She captioned the image, which soon went viral: "Broke my heart this morning seeing another pony KILLED on the forest road. Even more that her friends were looking on.
"I'm sorry to the commoner who's lost the pony, I hope it's not someone's pony I know but I hope by posting this it may make people realise that it's not just the owner who it upsets but their herd members too.
"SLOW DOWN DAY/NIGHT ON FOREST ROADS THESE PONIES have more rights to these roads than you do.
"I will say a few drivers got a few choice words from me this morning even with this poor horse on the side of the road and the others looking on, they still were going too bloody fast."
Cathy Stride, the owner of the mare, told Horse and Hound that she was a nine-year-old called Hazel Hill Scrap - who had been hit in the dark by a speeding car, having died from internal injuries and a broken leg after being knocked over.
She also said that this was the third pony of hers to be injured on that same stretch of road.
"Her mother spent a day and a half looking over her," she said.
"Sarah's picture shows the animals do have feelings - that was something that came across to me very much."
