No words were needed to understand what they were feeling.
The hides of two cows in Mongolia were hung in front of the rest of the herd, which caught the attention of one of them. Suddenly, its painful cries alerted the other cattle. The herd slowly approached to smell them while vocalizing in a way anyone would recognize as distress. They did not move away. They stayed there, surrounding what remained of their companions, as if they needed to physically verify what they already knew.
However, images alone do not allow us to know what the cows were feeling. Although it has been demonstrated that cattle form social bonds and can vocalize intensely in response to separation and other stressful situations, those same sounds are not enough to speak scientifically of grief.
It is also possible that the smell of the hides, their presence as strange objects, or a state of alertness triggered part of the reaction. Therefore, although the images may be difficult to watch without interpreting them through our own emotions, claiming that they were “crying for their companions” would go beyond what the video allows us to verify.