The House of Science is like a collection of stories. Beautiful stories told to live in all their freshness. But also in all its complexities. Arch to marvel at the treasures of the world. In this new episode, let’s get started on the world of emotions. To try to better understand what animals feel. Listen to their heartbeat!
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Have you ever gone home and found a file Deal eviscerated biscuits scattered on the floor? The box of biscuits I left carelessly lying around the table. And next to the eviscerated cookie package, there is a sad looking dogAnd the ears are low and the tail between the legs? Naturally, your mate knows he did something wrong. He feels guilty. Researchers say wrong. In such a situation, your dog is likely to feel it Sad Especially if you are close to each other. But this is certainly not because he is aware of his stupidity. Just because he reacts that way to your irritation.
The issue of the precise distinction between feeling and emotion. For professionals, an emotion becomes a feeling when the person who feels it is able to identify its causes and effects. This very precise point is still up for debate. However, after more than 40 years of intense debate, ethologists today seem to agree that animals can, MinimumAnd feel the emotions. The European Union also recognizes animals as sentient beings Since 2008. For France, it wasn’t until 2015.
Love and sadness feel Dolphin mothers When they lose a cub, the anger and joy your dog expresses when you come back to him after a day at work, and the fear are all emotions our animal friends can feel. The problem for us humans living next to them is that they cannot express these feelings in words. The result: we regularly hurt them to explain.
However, learning to read our animals’ emotions can be of great importance. Understanding what stresses them or what makes them unhappy can help us improve their well-being, whether in zoos, on farms, or in our homes.
The heart reveals emotions
To see more clearly, researchers They decided not to open their hearts, but to lean on the heart of animals. In a slightly less poetic way, they measured heart rates in different positions. This is what they have learned.
when geese graylag They fight, their heart rate rises from 84 beats per minute to about 157. Same note when they are simply witnessing a fight between their congeners. Obvious signs of intense emotional arousal. The heart rate increases even more when one of the geese involved in a fight is attached to the observer. And even more so when his chances of winning are low. Researchers are talking about emotional infection. When an individual is affected by another person’s feelings. An infection that can be seen on another level in dogs. Able to synchronize his heart rate – his emotions – with the heart rate of an individual of another species. On that human, of course.
heart rate chimpanzeeOn the other hand, it can vary from simply displaying images of an aggressive or friendly chimpanzee. What, suppose he is able to recognize the feelings of his colleagues. For others – goats or horses, for example – it’s the participation in a This needs more attention, looks good Make their hearts beat.
Heart rate measurements even made it possible to read the well-hidden emotions of certain animals. These are fromblack bears, stressing the existence of Drones, but who did not let it appear, for example.
They also showed that dogs who are afraid of fireworks are reassured by the presence of their human being, that cats can feel stressed by certain types of petting or that abandoned dogs are calmed when music is played for them. There are many ways to improve well-being farm animals. And plenty of evidence that listening to their hearts – ours – is not that stupid!
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