There was actually an article in the paper today about how a group of chimpanzees wouldn't go near the place where an elder lady chimp died for about a week, despite it being a favourite sleeping place, and how the daughter went there on her own once a day and just sat there. On top of that, as the zoo keepers took her away they whole family gathered around as they wheel barrowed her away.
There was also another story in the same article about how a mum of two kept the corpses of her two babies after they died with her for ages, and nobody else minded, a bit grim but it shows she had an attachment to them beyond just doing her job for nature.
Yes they do. Anyone who has had a dog knows that they are very good at expressing themselves. Whenever mine does something bad he knows it, his ears go down, his tail goes between his legs, and he has a very sad mopey expression in his brow.
Higher up the scale you go the more complex the emotions. Not every animal has emotions. Ants have 60 neurons and aren't even fully functional as individual units, they're not spending their days worrying about whether Danny thinks they've got a fat arse and droopy antennae.
Yeah they do...my girlfriend goes all out fucking nuker if I even look at another girl in a skimpy spring/summer dress....but then she gets all "wub" when I buy her stuff.
They are mammals, so they have a degree of emotions, however, I think domestication brought around "learned" emotions. Some mammals that aren't domesticated are much different emotions wise (wolves), and I think humans cuddling and swooning over kittens and puppies causes these "learned" emotions. Try petting a wolf and swooning over it...it won't care.
Also I can count animal emotions on one hand "hungry" "i need to shit" "i want attention" "fuck off" "get that dog off my lawn"
yes, some animals have emotion. i say some because i can't think of a time when i looked at a worm and said "hey that worm is happy today". maybe other small creatures run when there is something big in front of them.
The majority of metazoa (in numbers) does not feel "emotions", no.
You have to go waaaay down the phylogenetic tree to the arthropods (including, but not only consisting of insects) and vertebrates (fish, birds, mammals, etc.) until you can even argue about "emotions".
And even then, it depends on who you ask. The chemist? The biologist? The philosopher? The sociologist? The neurologist? They will all give you different answers, because "emotion" is not a scientific term.
An organism with a neural system that enables it to perceive "pain" (or bodily harm) and tries to avoid it, but is unable to conciously reflect, anticipate, learn from or regret it, does it "feel" an "emotion"?
What is left of "emotion" when you strip away conception of self, imagination, long-term memory or conception of "future"? Where do "reflex" or "sensation" or "instict" end and "emotion" begin?
Few people will deny that many if not most higher mammals, especially those who have shown forms of language, imagination and creativity experience something comparable to human "emotion" - because they have similar organs, similar nervous systems and reactions, similar messenger substances and exhibit similar reactions. You should, however, be very careful in what you make of that. If you ask me, to think that other species' perception of self, of the world, and of what is happening is even remotely similar to our own is.... questionable.
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