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Animal emotions, wild justice and why they matter: Grieving magpies, a pissy baboon, and empathic elephants
Marc Bekoff. Emotion, Space and Society. Volume 2, Issue 2, December 2009, Pages 82-85A few years ago my friend Rod and I were riding our bicycles around Boulder, Colorado, when we witnessed a fascinating encounter among five magpies. Magpies are Corvids, a very intelligent family of birds. One magpie had obviously been hit by a car and was lying dead on the side of the road. The four other magpies were standing around him. One approached the corpse, gently pecked at it, just as an elephant would nose the carcass of another elephant, and stepped back. Another magpie did the same thing. Next, one of the magpies flew off, brought back some grass, and laid it by the corpse. Another magpie did the same. Then, all four magpies stood vigil for a few seconds and one by one flew off.
Charles Darwin believed that animals, like humans, could be moral beings. He suggested that human morality is continuous with similar social behavior in other animals. Darwin paid special attention to the capacity for sympathy, which he believed was evidenced in a large number of animals.
Also consider the following scenarios. A teenage female elephant nursing an injured leg is knocked over by a rambunctious hormone-laden teenage male. An older female sees this happen, chases the male away, and goes back to the younger female and touches her sore leg with her trunk. Eleven elephants rescue a group of captive antelope in KwaZula-Natal; the matriarch elephant undoes all of the latches on the gates of the enclosure with her trunk and lets the gate swing open so the antelope can escape. A rat in a cage refuses to push a lever for food when it sees that another rat receives an electric shock as a result. A male Diana monkey who learned to insert a token into a slot to obtain food helps a female who can't get the hang of the trick, inserting the token for her and allowing her to eat the food reward. A female fruit-eating bat helps an unrelated female give birth by showing her how to hang in the proper way. A cat named Libby leads her elderly deaf and blind dog friend, Cashew, away from obstacles and to food. In a group of chimpanzees at the Arnhem Zoo in the Netherlands individuals punish other chimpanzees who are late for dinner because no one eats until they're all present.
Fairness is also an important part of the social life of animals. Researchers Brosnan et al. (2005) discovered what they call “inequity aversion” in Capuchin monkeys, a highly social and cooperative species in which food sharing is common. These monkeys, especially females, carefully monitor equity and fair treatment among peers. Individuals who are short-changed during a bartering transaction by being offered a less preferred treat refuse to cooperate with researchers. The Capuchins expect to be treated fairly. Research by Range and her colleagues (2009) in Austria also shows that dogs expected to be treated fairly. Dogs won't work for food if they see other dogs getting more than they do for performing the same task.
Marc Bekoff. Emotion, Space and Society. Volume 2, Issue 2, December 2009, Pages 82-85A few years ago my friend Rod and I were riding our bicycles around Boulder, Colorado, when we witnessed a fascinating encounter among five magpies. Magpies are Corvids, a very intelligent family of birds. One magpie had obviously been hit by a car and was lying dead on the side of the road. The four other magpies were standing around him. One approached the corpse, gently pecked at it, just as an elephant would nose the carcass of another elephant, and stepped back. Another magpie did the same thing. Next, one of the magpies flew off, brought back some grass, and laid it by the corpse. Another magpie did the same. Then, all four magpies stood vigil for a few seconds and one by one flew off.
Charles Darwin believed that animals, like humans, could be moral beings. He suggested that human morality is continuous with similar social behavior in other animals. Darwin paid special attention to the capacity for sympathy, which he believed was evidenced in a large number of animals.
Also consider the following scenarios. A teenage female elephant nursing an injured leg is knocked over by a rambunctious hormone-laden teenage male. An older female sees this happen, chases the male away, and goes back to the younger female and touches her sore leg with her trunk. Eleven elephants rescue a group of captive antelope in KwaZula-Natal; the matriarch elephant undoes all of the latches on the gates of the enclosure with her trunk and lets the gate swing open so the antelope can escape. A rat in a cage refuses to push a lever for food when it sees that another rat receives an electric shock as a result. A male Diana monkey who learned to insert a token into a slot to obtain food helps a female who can't get the hang of the trick, inserting the token for her and allowing her to eat the food reward. A female fruit-eating bat helps an unrelated female give birth by showing her how to hang in the proper way. A cat named Libby leads her elderly deaf and blind dog friend, Cashew, away from obstacles and to food. In a group of chimpanzees at the Arnhem Zoo in the Netherlands individuals punish other chimpanzees who are late for dinner because no one eats until they're all present.
Fairness is also an important part of the social life of animals. Researchers Brosnan et al. (2005) discovered what they call “inequity aversion” in Capuchin monkeys, a highly social and cooperative species in which food sharing is common. These monkeys, especially females, carefully monitor equity and fair treatment among peers. Individuals who are short-changed during a bartering transaction by being offered a less preferred treat refuse to cooperate with researchers. The Capuchins expect to be treated fairly. Research by Range and her colleagues (2009) in Austria also shows that dogs expected to be treated fairly. Dogs won't work for food if they see other dogs getting more than they do for performing the same task.