Crocodile mothers show their tender side by caring for their offspring.This article is also from the New Zealand Herald website.
(Saturday, 8th March, 2008).
This article is about animals that have emotions quite similar to humans. When people talk about crocodile tears, dogged determination or laughing like a hyena they might not be too far off the mark.
Marc Bekoff, Professor of Biology at the University of Colorado has said that scientists have moved on from the presumption that the way animals act is the result of programmed behavior. “It’s not a question of it they have emotions but why they have evolved” he said.
Dr Bekoff has said that elephants can experience grief, mice feel empathy, rats get excited about playing with a friend, sharks get mad and koalas have likes and dislikes. Crocodile mums care for their kids, squid can be shy, fish can have addictive personalities and even coyotes get the blues.
Dr Bekoff says recent research in cognitive ethology (animal behavior) and neuroscience shows that animals have similar brain structures and chemistry to humans.
Dr Bekoff also says that it’s easy to recognize emotions in animals like dogs and chimpanzees because they are familiar to us. There is data to show that reptiles and certainly birds and even fish show fear responses.
Animals can also develop psychopathology, says Dr Bekoff.
For example, he says he has come across a coyote that “fulfilled the criteria of autism”. It is not surprising that animals have emotions because they serve the evolutionary purpose of ensuring survival and reproductive fitness says Dr Bekoff.
Emotions drive behavior, provide for appropriate responses to threatening situations and act as a social glue for animals that depend on living in a group.
Dr Bekoff also says “we can say were taking good care of animals but there are still existing laws and regulations that allow you to mistreat them”.
Some of the facts and information Marc Bekoff has talked about in his article is very interesting. It shows just how much animals are like humans; they have a lot of the same feelings as humans meaning that when humans hurt animals they feel the same sort of emotions that humans do when they are in the same situation of being abused. But does that stop humans from abusing animals? No way! They just don’t care about the animal’s feelings or emotions; they only care about their own.
Does it make you see animals any different knowing they have the same emotions as humans?
Do you think animals would feel the same as humans do when they have been treated cruelly or abused?
To find out more information on animals emotions and feelings or find out more about Marc Bekoff’s research and facts then click on the link below:
URL: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=82&objectid=10496820
2 comments:
I thought this was a really good article!!! It is so good that Dr Marc Bekoff is traveling around doing public talks on the emotional lives of animals. The more this topic is put out there, the more people will, hopefully, start to repsect and care for their animals properly.
I thought it was a really cute article, especially the bit about animals having personalities.
"There are shy animals, bold animals, risk-takers ... some animals wake up in the morning depressed and some wake up raring to go." I really agree with that statement because having grown up around a lot of animals, ive noticed soo many different personalities in my animals. My girl cat is real snobby and posh, yet my male cat is a fighter and can get huffy real easily.. Every animal i have met has had a different personality, which proves they have feelings and emotions and react differently to certain situations.
Yeah well it is so true though, animals do have emotions but with the way some humans act towards them you can see how some humans wouldnt think animals have emotions and feelings of their own...
Thats why I thought this article was relevant to my blog topic!!!!
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