Though
much of big science has centered on breakthroughs in biotechnology,
nanotechnology and more esoteric questions like the age of our universe,
a quieter story has been unfolding behind the scenes in laboratories
around the world -- one whose effect on human perception and our
understanding of life is likely to be profound.
What these
researchers are finding is that many of our fellow creatures are more
like us than we had ever imagined. They feel pain, suffer and experience
stress, affection, excitement and even love -- and these findings are
changing how we view animals.
Strangely enough, some of the
research sponsors are fast food purveyors, such as McDonald's, Burger
King and KFC. Pressured by animal rights activists and by growing public
support for the humane treatment of animals, these companies have
financed research into, among other things, the emotional, mental and
behavioral states of our fellow creatures.
Studies on pigs' social
behavior funded by McDonald's at Purdue University, for example, have
found that they crave affection and are easily depressed if isolated or
denied playtime with each other. The lack of mental and physical stimuli
can result in deterioration of health.
The
European Union has taken such studies to heart and outlawed the use of
isolating pig stalls by 2012. In Germany, the government is encouraging
pig farmers to give each pig 20 seconds of human contact each day and to
provide them with toys to prevent them from fighting.
Other funding sources have fueled the growing field of study into animal emotions and cognitive abilities.
Researchers
were stunned recently by findings (published in the journal Science) on
the conceptual abilities of New Caledonian crows. In controlled
experiments, scientists at Oxford University reported that two birds
named Betty and Abel were given a choice between using two tools, one a
straight wire, the other a hooked wire, to snag a piece of meat from
inside a tube. Both chose the hooked wire. Abel, the more dominant male,
then stole Betty's hook, leaving her with only a straight wire. Betty
then used her beak to wedge the straight wire in a crack and bent it
with her beak to produce a hook. She then snagged the food from inside
the tube. Researchers repeated the experiment and she fashioned a hook
out of the wire nine of out of 10 times.
Equally impressive is
Koko, the 300-pound gorilla at the Gorilla Foundation in Northern
California, who was taught sign language and has mastered more than
1,000 signs and understands several thousand English words. On human IQ
tests, she scores between 70 and 95.
Tool-making and the
development of sophisticated language skills are just two of the many
attributes we thought were exclusive to our species. Self-awareness is
another.
Some philosophers and animal behaviorists have long
argued that other animals are not capable of self-awareness because they
lack a sense of individualism. Not so, according to new studies. At the
Washington National Zoo, orangutans given mirrors explore parts of
their bodies they can't otherwise see, showing a sense of self. An
orangutan named Chantek who lives at the Atlanta Zoo used a mirror to
groom his teeth and adjust his sunglasses.
Of course, when it
comes to the ultimate test of what distinguishes humans from the other
creatures, scientists have long believed that mourning for the dead
represents the real divide. It's commonly believed that other animals
have no sense of their mortality and are unable to comprehend the
concept of their own death. Not necessarily so. Animals, it appears,
experience grief. Elephants will often stand next to their dead kin for
days, occasionally touching their bodies with their trunks.
We
also know that animals play, especially when young. Recent studies in
the brain chemistry of rats show that when they play, their brains
release large amounts of dopamine, a neurochemical associated with
pleasure and excitement in human beings.
Noting
the striking similarities in brain anatomy and chemistry of humans and
other animals, Stephen M. Siviy, a behavioral scientist at Gettysburg
College in Pennsylvania, asks a question increasingly on the minds of
other researchers. "If you believe in evolution by natural selection,
how can you believe that feelings suddenly appeared, out of the blue,
with human beings?"
Until very recently, scientists were still
advancing the idea that most creatures behaved by sheer instinct and
that what appeared to be learned behavior was merely genetically wired
activity. Now we know that geese have to teach their goslings their
migration routes. In fact, we are finding that learning is passed on
from parent to offspring far more often than not and that most animals
engage in all kinds of learned experience brought on by continued
experimentation.
