CUriosity: Do animals have emotions?
In CUriosity, experts across the 精品SM在线影片 campus answer pressing questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.
This week, Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at 精品SM在线影片, answers: 鈥淒o animals have emotions?鈥
Pet owners tend to see their animals鈥 feelings clearly. Dogs wagging their tails when the owners get home? Happiness. Crouching down after being caught raiding the trash? Embarrassment. Barking, and jumping up and down when they see their friends? Excitement.
But what about less cuddly creatures? Do crustaceans and birds have emotions, too?
鈥淥f course they do,鈥 Bekoff said 鈥淭here's solid science showing very clearly that a wide diversity of animals have emotions, from mammals to all the vertebrates and invertebrates.鈥
Bekoff has spent decades observing animals from coyotes in the Rocky Mountains to Ad茅lie penguins in Antarctica. He has written multiple books about animal sentience including 鈥淭he Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy鈥攁nd Why They Matter.鈥
He said emotions play an important role in helping animals make decisions about how to respond to social situations, such as whether to run from a potential danger or to approach a mate. For group-living animals like coyotes and wolves, having emotions is fundamental to forming packs.
Evidence has shown that mammals鈥攊ncluding humans鈥攅mit similar brain chemicals during emotional situations. For example, birds secrete dopamine, a chemical that makes humans feel good, when they sing songs to attract a potential mate.
But even invertebrates like insects and crustaceans could experience emotions, according to a growing body of . While scientists can't definitively say lobsters experience happiness the same way as humans do, they certainly avoid painful situations.
鈥淭here is a biodiversity of emotions,鈥 Bekoff said. He explained that the feeling of joy varies even between different people, but that doesn鈥檛 mean animals like lobsters or ants don鈥檛 experience happiness. 鈥淚t may simply look different than in humans.鈥
Recognizing all animals have emotions can help people develop more empathy toward wildlife and support wildlife conservation efforts, he added.
In a published earlier this year, Bekoff and his collaborators proposed that treating individual animals as creatures with emotions and personalities, in addition to understanding the species as a whole, could help preserve biodiversity.
For example, people might be more willing to use loud sounds or strong scents to scare away predators they encounter rather than resort to killing.
Bekoff said Colorado could apply these approaches to help manage its wildlife, including grey wolves, which were reintroduced in the state in December following a voter-approved initiative. For social animals like wolves, if the leader dies, it can lead to the dissolution of the entire pack, he said.
鈥淲olves have very tight bonds with their pack members,鈥 Bekoff said. 鈥淧ups have very tight bonds with their mom. Killing any of these individuals will not support a sustainable population.鈥
In the end, Bekoff says humans shouldn鈥檛 be so quick to brush off other animals.
鈥淚t's really easy to write off an ant or a lobster or a crayfish, but there's no reason to. My take as a scientist is to keep the door open until we are sure that it is not true.鈥