5 Ways Animals Express Human Emotions
The smile of a dog, the playfulness of a cat, the fidelity of a horse - animals do not lag behind humans in expressing emotions! Obviously, they are also happy, sad and afraid. Signs of joy are the wagging of the dog's tail and even the dancing of the birds! The feeling of fear makes the hearts of animals beat faster, and cats express sadness by licking their fur. They can experience both envy and rejoice in the success of their comrades. Who said that emotions are only human property? Watching animals, we are convinced that they also feel like we do.
In 2007, some young people decided to tease an Amur tigress at the San Francisco Zoo for Christmas. Now it does not matter what exactly they said to the tigress there. The important thing is that deep resentment sunk into her bestial soul. A few minutes after the offenders left, she got out of the fence, spreading terror, made her way through the open enclosures of other animals, made her way through the appetizing crowd of people, and found those same three villains to settle a bloody account with them. However, in reality, this is nonsense compared to the story of Vladimir Markov, a Russian poacher. On one fateful day in 1997, Markov managed to injure a tiger and, as an additional humiliation, appropriated part of the tiger's prey. The tiger, despite everything, managed to escape. At the same time, deep wounds remained not only on the body of the predator, but also in his soul.
Later, the tiger found Markov's hunting hut in the forest. Not finding the owner, the beast unleashed its fury on everything that smelled like a poacher, and lay down in anticipation of revenge at the entrance. And if someone thinks that upon the arrival of Markov, all misunderstandings were settled over a cup of tea, then we are forced to upset you. The tiger dragged Markov into the bushes, tore him to pieces and ate him.
The word "rat" is qualified by people as an insult, regardless of their age and social status. Call someone a rat at work and see for yourself. Nobody will be happy.
The reason lies not only in the fact that dirty rats carry various diseases, but also in their flagrant inconsistency with the standards of human virtue. Rats do not know mutual assistance, they are not capable of organizing social groups. All they can do is madly race towards any rotting garbage and then devour it, walk over each other's heads and defecate right on their neighbor's face in a frenzied, selfish scramble in the name of food and reproduction.
Nevertheless, centuries of scientific experience tell us that animal behavior, seemingly unsystematic and terrible at first glance, can appear in a new light with prolonged observation. Researchers of rat behavior have come across examples of rats' altruism and devotion towards each other. At the same time, the scientists themselves, ironically, had to go on a cruel experiment, creating a chamber of psychological torture, as in the movie "Saw".
One of the two rats, who lived together for some time, was placed in an enclosed space, and the other was left outside to watch her trapped friend. As expected, the rat in captivity began to give distress signals, prompting the other rat to immediately take rescue measures. Vividly showing the ability to empathize, the free rat rushed to the aid of her friend, ignoring even a specially prepared mountain of delicacies.
And the rat's good-heartedness didn't stop there. As soon as the release was completed, the helper rat shared its delicacy with the rescued one. The friends ate in silence, only with a glance expressing their contempt to the astonished scientists.
Elephants are like actor Harvey Keitel in the animal kingdom: downright badass, but with a touch of mature intelligence that makes them somewhat less dangerous. In addition, they are constantly naked. However, thanks to Dumbo, we think of elephants as gentle and sensitive, don't we? So, there is one ability that, according to human ideas, corresponds to the depth of only human feelings: the ability to mourn the dead.
So, if you think animals see their fallen brethren as pieces of rotting meat, then look at elephants. When they come across the remains of their own species, they gather around and caress the skulls and tusks with their thick trunks.
In doing so, elephants not only show convincing signs of respect for the skeletons of their dead comrades, but they also bury them in the foliage or nearby bushes.
And the matter is not limited to the corpses of other elephants. One thick-skinned man in Kenya killed two people. However, instead of just dumping the bodies, he went and buried them.
So, if the elephant kills you, then only with a feeling of deepest guilt and with the utmost respect for your corpse.
For many of us, a fiasco on the personal front and alcohol are as inseparable as New Year's Eve and...alcohol. For being human is not always good - we have a big brain, big love, and therefore big experiences, for the suppression of which large bottles of alcohol are needed. But as surprising as it may sound, humans are not the only creatures that do this.
Since fruit flies are primarily sexual creatures, scientists wondered what happens to them when they are rejected. Denials in Drosophila practice are not uncommon, as females are prone to hypocrisy, especially if they have just mated. If a second male attempts to mate, the female will kick him and hide. Because she, you see, is not some kind of slut.
After the sexual adventures, the scientists offered the rejected and lucky flies a choice of regular or alcohol-soaked food. At the same time, after the next sexual victory, fruit flies did not show preferences, while their colleagues who suffered a fiasco were much more likely to choose food with alcohol.
Actually, the behavior of both flies and humans is based on the same physiological reasons. Alcohol leads to the production of reward chemicals in the brains of fruit flies, thus, not getting satisfaction from sex, they looked for solace in a bottle. Or (in this case) in a large portion of food soaked in alcohol. In general, if you are overcome by depression, dip pizza in gin.
If there is any kind of mental activity that is unique to man, it is superstition. After all, intelligence is a double-edged sword, right? There is probably only one animal smart enough to build a computer and stupid enough to believe in lucky socks that bring good luck in the lottery. And yet, besides us, there is another superstitious (without any training) animal. We are pleased to introduce you to the favorite of all motorists - a pigeon.
B. F. Skinner, the well-known psychologist who is probably known to many of you as "that guy with the box," put pigeons in his cages as well as rats. The cages were equipped with a mechanism by which food was regularly brought in, and the pigeons ate it, as if for the last time. The pigeons loved the food and couldn't figure out how to get more.
Unable to comprehend the concept of free food, the pigeons assumed that the food came as a result of their actions, approved by the pigeon god of feasting. For example, one of the pigeons turned to the right during the feeding and therefore decided that food appeared precisely because of this movement.
Each test pigeon developed its own belief system. Some decided that they needed to turn counterclockwise two or three times, others made pendulum movements with their heads, and still others nodded. Skinner kept the pigeons fed to eliminate the effect of hunger on their behavior. Thus, the pigeons did not go crazy with hunger - they were ready to believe in anything, if only there was something to bomb cars.