Have you found yourself debating that animals do, indeed, have emotions? Yep, we have too.
So now, here's scientific data that will help us win the argument once and for all.
Marc Bekoff, a professor of Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, does research in animal behavior and neuroscience. "About four years ago, people thought I had a brain tumor when I was doing this work, but now it's really well accepted," he said.
He noted that scientists no longer presume that animals act only as a result of programmed behavior.
"It's not a question of if they have emotions but why they have evolved," he says.
Some neat findings in the report include:
- It's easier to see the emotions in animals that are closer to us as humans, like cats and dogs, but "reptiles and certainly birds and even fish show fear responses"
- rats show the same dopamine response to the expectation of playing with their friends as do humans
- mice show empathy - they feel the pain of other mice"
- social carnivores like coyotes, wolves, dogs and foxes play shows "very clearly" that animals know right and wrong and that they can develop the idea of justice
Read full article: Stuff/New Zeland
