For a long time, biologists believed that animals didn’t have emotions; that they weren’t really conscious. Work in recent years has shown this isn’t quite the case. (Marc Bekoff has written some good books on this topic, such as Minding Animals.)

The New York Times recently had an article about some such research, and it’s rather interesting. It reminds me that animals are a lot more like us than we might care to admit… which also means we’re a lot more like them than we might care to admit.


In That Tucked Tail, Real Pangs of Regret?

JOHN TIERNEY
Published: June 1, 2009

If you own a dog, especially a dog that has anointed your favorite rug, you know that an animal is capable of apologizing. He can whimper and slouch and tuck his tail and look positively mortified — “I don’t know what possessed me.” But is he really feeling sorry?

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