We Are All the Same?

The scene is etched in memory despite the fact that it occurred many years ago. I used to drive a busy road to work every morning; two lanes of traffic, bumper to bumper for the 5 miles into the business district downtown. One morning, I spotted a mallard duck sitting on the curb. It didn’t make sense that a duck would stay in such a dangerous location so near to the road. That was, until I passed the bird and saw the body of a female mallard lying against the curb directly in front of the drake. The next morning and for several days after, the drake remained in the same location.

Animism is the belief that everything on this earth possesses a soul. Animist traditions can be found in early hunter/gatherer civilizations, the traditional Japanese religion of Shinto, Native American religions and some Hindu and Judeo-Christian sects. As a person who feels a strong God-presence in nature, it isn’t much of a stretch for me to believe that that mallard duck’s vigil on that road side was evidence of grief for his dead companion.

In the September 12^th Science Daily: Plants & Animals News, researchers from the University of California- Davis, observed that Western Scrub Jays would summon other jays to encircle the remains of a dead companion. These funerals could last up to a half hour at a time. Scientists performed tests to determine whether inanimate objects shaped like jays would elicit the same behavior but the jays ignored the substitutes. Other animals such as elephants, giraffes and chimpanzees have been observed to display similar behaviors when faced with the death of a member of their species.

I have personally witnessed a comparable behavior when my cat Siegfried died. For several weeks after Siegfried’s death, his long-time companion Tristan moped around the house. At night he would climb into bed with me pressing his body next to mine where he remained the entire night. This was not a behavior that Tristan had previously exhibited. It was only when I introduced a new kitten into the house a month later that Tristan returned to his sleeping chair that he now shared with the rambunctious Max.

What scientists are discovering is that the animals possess emotions very similar to our own. If a Scrub Jay or a Mallard Duck can exhibit grief, what is to say that wildlife do not possess fear, doubt, joy, love or any other human emotion?