Ever seen your golden retriever side-eyeing you following your covert exit with a bag of chips? Welcome to Animalcentral, where feline sass and odd tail wags suggest a fully developed universe of animal emotions. Scientists long painted animals in fuzzy coats under the direction of instincts alone, as robots. Now, with keen eyes and more focused research, we are realizing it is all mythology. Animals have feelings and frequently in interesting ways.
Now consider elephants. Have you ever seen an elephant grieved? Researchers in Kenya delicately touched skulls and tusks with their trunks as herds went back over the bones of departed kin. There is not random about this. Many see it as proof of loss, an emotion so profound that mimics human grieving rites. Then there is laughing, yes, laughter! Of all the animals, rats also release ultrasonic giggles when tickled. Real, but you’ll need a bat detector to hear them.
Let us address dogs, let’s say. They wear their hearts on their furry sleeves, not only loyalty. MRI studies have shown in a dog’s brain when its owner returns happiness and expectation. Stories abound of pups pacing at the window, softly complaining, ears alert at every step forward. Ignored, a dog slumps; bounces for goodies; and smiles broadly on automobile excursions. Those are real emotional states, not anything of fantasy. And let me not start on cats. Remote? Often.
Animal feeling is not often so readily understandable, though. Every species, sometimes every individual, expresses its emotions in mysterious scripts. For those of us who are cockatues, parrots show affection with regurgitated treats—delicious, evidently. Instead of running, reptiles freeze in terror. Pet binky bunnies, thrilled, leap sideways. Not when the cover is a wagging tail or a flickering fin can you always judge a book by its cover.
