Do you think humans are the only species that experiences genuine empathy with other animals? I mean, there are various examples of, say, cats adopting chickens or elephants making friends with dogs, but most of these can be traced back to human influence foreign to the respective species.
Why is it only humans who keep pets? Why is it only humans that actually take care of other species for the sole sake of companionship?
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that is the cutest dog ever
got any moar?
Good question, OP.
Nyet
Ants can keep livestock.
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I am aware, but this is out of purely pragmatical purpose because the livestock supply the ants with food. The ants only care about the livestock for their own food supply, whereas a human may care for an animal (or another human) even if all logical factors would mark the relationship as being entirely one-sided.
there's a gorilla who has a pet cat
she's been raised by humans though, so might not happen in nature
I can't think of an animal keeping a pet but Koko the Gorilla as posted actually experiences empathy towards humans. Koko met the actor Robin Williams and when he was notified that Williams passed away he made the sign for sadness and didn't talk for the rest of the day.
I would put argue that a certain level of self awareness is needed. So I'm pretty sure some apes may be capable of something similar.
Dolphins for that matter are actually smart enough to have sex for fun. They even group up to rape female dolphins and use other dolphins "names" even though they are actually not present (kinda like talking about someone else behind their back)
So Gorillas actually feel more empathy than niggers
Mammals occasionally adopt other species of infant mammals in the wild, too. But this isn't empathy it's just a confusion of instincts. And parents caring for their young in general isn't empathy either.
Empathy is assuming you've experienced the same emotion that you're observing in another and expressing the assumption with sympathy.
Affection, attachment, interest, pity and caring don't require empathy. Humans act this way, separate from other animals, mostly because we have the mind and leisure to do so. Not much more to it.
It actually does happen in nature, was an entire show on the subject on TV a while back.
Monkeys in the wild with no human interaction were found to keep lesser monkeys and other animals purely as pets.
(Unlike the cases where two species co-operate)
Checked
...
How do you know that's not what we're doing?
here's the full vid
cutest thing ever
There's also the lioness that adopted a baby antelope without human interaction involved
I'm going with yes, even without human interference there have been cases of inter-species adoption / friendship.
raising food is a smart idea
No animal ever does something for another without an ulterior motive. even the stinking, cancerous old dog we so lavishly look after: we do it to maintain control over our feels. when we finally shoot it and shovel it into a hole, it's because we've convinced ourselves it's in the dog's best interest.
Alturism is an uniquely human illusion.
another fuckin moron comin over here trying to be deep, but is, instead, high.
Apes can have pets.
Every social species has empathy.
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Another asswipe that provides nothing but "cause i said so" arguments and then claims he BTFO'd someone.
shh, no hate
only dogs now
sciencedirect.com
science.sciencemag.org
journals.plos.org
science.sciencemag.org
link.springer.com
jstor.org
pnas.org
BTFO
GTFO
STFU
DENIED, SIT DOWN
STAY MAD
Don't trust news about Koko.
I have read that her owner is unwilling to back up a lot of the claims she makes about her and she has been caught covering up aspects about Koko she does not want the public to know, like how Koko is attracted to female human breasts.
That could be bullshit as well, but read up on it if you are interested. I'm too lazy to look for sources to back up my claims.
Fucking cretin, no.
You can find your own links but I recall the following:
I like reading about animals a lot
wouldn't be surprised if Koko turned out to be a fat Italian guy in a gorilla suit