
Frans de Waal Embraces Animal Emotions in ‘Mama’s Last Hug’ - hownottowrite
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/25/books/review/frans-de-waal-mamas-last-hug.html
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theprotocol
Well written article (or is it an excerpt from Montgomery's book, itself
discussing an excerpt from another book? I can't quite tell). My ADHD didn't
stand a chance and I couldn't stop reading.

From my experience, I am certain that animals' feelings are intuitively
compatible with those of humans, and concur with the suggestion that
"anthropodenial" is more of a fallacy than anthropomorphism is typically
thought to be.

I've raised many creatures and interacted with them throughout their lives, as
have many people. I am confident most people who have experienced this would
agree that interspecies communication can happen intuitively (I didn't receive
any particular training yet managed strikingly complex communication with
creatures as small as a sparrow). I wonder if this is an instinct, and whether
it corresponds to some evolutionary advantage that would kick in after basic
needs (read: self-defense, hunting) are met.

~~~
deogeo
> managed strikingly complex communication with creatures as small as a
> sparrow

You got me curious - care to share more about it?

~~~
theprotocol
Background: We had rescued a baby sparrow with an injured leg. There was no
way to return it to its nest (it was at the nestling stage), and we'd already
seen dozens die and not a single one get rescued by the parents after falling
throughout the years (zerg rush of very big ants; cats; other insects) so we
made the call to try and rehabilitate this one (there were no wildlife
rehabilitators where we lived at the time).

She thrived and reached a point where she could be released, which we tried to
do. She took it as us teaching her how to fly, and kept circling back and then
looking at us like "hey guys, what do we do next?" After a bit of flying
lessons she'd go back into her cage and sit in the back corner, away from the
door, and after a while we'd have to bring the cage back into the house. After
trying this a few times over a few weeks it became clear she had no intention
of leaving, and she was starting to show social behavior towards us. She loved
our routine. I would sit close to her cage whenever we ate, and she'd come up
and eat at the same time. If we were late, she'd perch on the food thing and
try and make eye contact with us (not eating until we did).

One time she produced a sort of "emergency" chirp. I had never heard it before
yet it worked and made me realize she was calling for help. I went over to
check on her, and she was sitting in the back corner of her cage, looking
concerned. The large cage door had been stuck in the open position back when
one of us was changing her food. I closed it and she was relieved.

One day I sat in a different place from usual and she was unhappy about it.
She kept trying to get as high up in her cage as possible in order to get a
look at me and make eye contact. She didn't eat very much and was looking a
bit concerned. She was relieved again when I got up and talked to her. Later
on we made sure not to change the seating arrangements.

Her ability to interact with us was on the same level as one of the more
intelligent dog breeds. She would sometimes play games with us. Sparrows can
be cheeky. Her bed time was a sort of game. We'd say the magic words and she'd
understand, so she'd go into a corner of her cage and when we'd cover it with
a piece of cloth, that'd be the darkest part. The bottom of her cage was
transparent so she'd look at us through the plastic and swipe at it with her
beak, like the normal beak-cleaning routine birds did. But she'd do it
repeatedly (10+ times) whenever she was happy, and she loved when we got close
to the cage and made eye contact through the plastic as she snuggled for bed.

Another time she made a unique kind of sound, designed to attract our
attention. I went to see what that was about, and she made eye contact with
me. She picked up a small piece of hardened bread (we fed her bread and it
would get hard after a while) and dunked it in the water, and gobbled it down
while looking at me. She was proud of her discovery that you could make hard
bread edible again, and wanted to show it off.

She lived with us for about 20 years and sadly died of old age in August of
2016.

------
Gunstig2Snath
Emotions are physical. They register in the pits of our stomachs, in our hair
that stands on end, in our racing hearts, in sudden flushes of heat. Most
animals, and certainly most mammals, have nervous systems very similar to
ours, up to and including the mid-brain structures where emotions "report" to
our cognitive structures, which are the only part of us that's really
different from all those others. We can articulate our feelings and make more
intricate plans to change or prolong them. But there's no reason to think our
racing hearts FEEL any different from theirs.

------
campallison
I've read several of his books. My favorite is Are We Smart Enough to Know How
Smart Animals Are. Very much worth your time.

