Breakthrough theory suggests emotions and mood underpin animal behaviour, much like in humans
Years ago, I reported for Slate on animal relationships across species - not only are humans fond of their cats, but it turns out, it is not uncommon for dogs and cats to bond, as any Youtube search will prove. Less common is the cheetah and the dog, but even that relationship is part of the animal experience. "Animals can forge bonds across species boundaries if the need for social contact pre-empts their normal biological imperatives. A cat raised with dogs doesn’t know it’s a cat, the logic goes," my piece started. So I found it very interesting that a new study out of the UK talks about an aspect of this topic, animal emotions. The new theory from researchers at the School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast suggests that animals experience emotions like we do - showing positive moods when they “win” and sour moods when they “lose”. Their findings have been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B . Using animal contests as a ca...