Can animals mourn the loss of their young? That’s the topic of debate among YouTube users who watched a video of a mother dog apparently burying her deceased pup.

In the viral video, a dog buries her young puppy with dirt by using her nose in what appears to be an act of mourning. The conditions surrounding the event are generally unknown, but the act of seeming bereavement has astonished thousands and ignited quite the debate.

The video has gotten more than 25,000 views and more than 100 comments where users discussed whether or not the dog was grieving. Ed Ouchii’s comment on the video was similar to what many people were thinking: “Amazing period! I love dogs more than humans!”

While everyone else was thinking “aw” or “so sad,” a few other viewers had a different view on the matter. Ametkhoshascake wrote, “The dog is burying the other dog to conceal it so it may return later to eat it. Dogs do this with many animals, not just dead puppys, get a grip people, it's a natural reaction to stock food.”

And markawesomesauce added, “...this is not a learned behavior. It is an instinct passed through genes as a means to preserve food.”

Dr. Sophia Yin, a veterinarian and applied animal behaviorist from San Francisco, told U.S. News dogs are capable of mourning. “Dogs who mourn may show similar signs to when they're separated for long periods of time from the individual they're bonded to,” she said.

The Huffington Post pointed out a post from a Reddit user who added a picture of her dog and cat lying in a crate where the dog's dead sibling, who had just been put down, used to sleep. "I had to put my dog Mauja down last Saturday. I didn't think my other animals were missing her, and then this happened. Kooky and Gracie have never slept together before, but there they were last night, sleeping in Mauja's crate," the Reddit user Kanadka wrote.

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