Anyone who has cried over novels like Old Yeller or Dog of Flanders doesn't have to be told that pets are people, too. By that, I mean animals have feelings and emotions. 

Still, I'm glad that scientists test these assumptions, if only to validate that all living organisms—no matter their species, physical size, or the size of their brains— have “mood states.” 

In other words, they can be just as grumpy as you.

Or driven by desire, anger, trust, or love.

Up until now, there was little proof that reptiles also have what researchers in England identified what they describe as “mood states” — that is, emotional experiences. Testing red-footed tortoises, the study, published in the journal Animal Cognition, could be applied to many more reptiles. More importantly, it could have profound implications for how humans treat them. According to Oliver Burman, who studies animal behavior at the University of Lincoln in England and authored the paper, "They could respond to positive things and unpleasant things. But the long-term mood states are really important.” Although reptiles were originally thought to be, in 19th-century comparative psychologist Charles Henry Turner's words, “intellectual dwarfs.” As recently as 1973, scientists perpetuated that theory in a paper titled, “The Evolutionary Advantages of Being Stupid”. Dr. Burman disagrees. Like other reptiles, tortoises learn from each other and communicate with each other. 

More to the point, they also have moods. Dr. Burman and his colleagues put the tortoises through a cognitive bias test. Would a positive experience lead to good mood and optimism about uncertain outcomes? Would those left in a bad mood be more pessimistic? 

 

The test sample consisted of 15 tortoises, each left in an enclosure with two empty bowls. If it approached one specific bowl, it received a treat: arugula. Approaching the other netted nothing. Now trained to associate each bowl with this reward criteria, additional bowls were added in varying locations. And each tortoise was tracked at the speed at which they investigated these new bowls. For the next two weeks, researchers presented each tortoise with a different object. They also moved the tortoises to an enclosure with a different floor pattern. These changes are known to cause tortoises some anxiety. However, the tortoises that were most optimistic in the earlier test showed the least anxiety in the new environment. How did the scientists know this? Because tortoises extend their heads when relaxed. “These results significantly extend contemporary knowledge of the capacity for reptiles to experience mood states,” the scientists' paper notes. The results were similar to a 2010 study on dogs experiencing separation anxiety. 

We've come to accept that humans are animals. It's time we wrap our brains around the fact that, apparently, animals are humanistic.

Then again, anyone who's loved a pet already knows this, right? 

Have a story about a pet that showed emotions? Write me here.

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