Thanakrit Sirichaibhinyo 6509035520

What are animals thinking?

I have lived for eight years now with my dog, Charlie—a bloodhound who’s embarrassingly
bad at tracking scents. He greets me jubilantly every time I come home, even if it’s from a quick
grocery run. I can hear his tail go thump-thump-thump on the floor in the next room when I
laugh; he echoes my mirth even when he can’t see me.
Yet, despite sharing this bond, I often sit down next to him on the couch, give him a hug,
and ask my wife, “Do you think he loves me?” “Yes, yes!” she replies, with only slight
exasperation, which is charitable because I ask so often.
This routine is almost like a ritual in our household. I wonder if Charlie has any thoughts
about it. Looking at him sunning himself on our front porch makes me think about a deeper
question: How much do animal minds resemble ours? Do other species have thoughts and
feelings and memories the way we do?
As humans, we still think of ourselves as exceptional beings, fundamentally different from
other animals. Over the past half century, though, scientists have amassed evidence of
intelligence in many nonhuman species. New Caledonian crows snip twigs to fish insect larvae
from tree trunks. Octopuses solve puzzles and shield their dens by placing rocks at the entrance.
 Thanakrit Sirichaibhinyo 6509035520

We no longer doubt that many animals possess impressive cognitive abilities. But are they more
than just sophisticated automatons, occupied solely with survival and procreation?
A growing number of behavioral studies, combined with anecdotal observations in
the wild—such as an orca pushing her dead calf around for weeks—are revealing that many
species have much more in common with humans than previously thought. Elephants
grieve. Dolphins play for the fun of it. Cuttlefish have distinct personalities. Ravens seem
to respond to the emotional states of other ravens. Many primates form strong friendships.
In some species, such as elephants and orcas, the elders share knowledge gained from
experience with the younger ones. Several others, including rats, are capable of acts of
empathy and kindness. (Learn more about the hidden world of whale culture.) (Main idea)
This emerging picture of sentience, of rich inner lives, among surprisingly varied nonhuman
species represents something of a Copernican revolution in how we view other beings on our
planet. Until about three decades ago, the minds of animals were not considered a topic worthy
of scientific inquiry. “And animal emotions—well, that was for romantics,” recalls Frans de Waal,
an Emory University ethologist who has spent a lifetime studying primate behavior. De Waal was
one of the earliest voices advocating for the recognition of animal consciousness. Starting a couple
of decades ago, he says, scientists began to concede that certain species were sentient but argued
that their experiences were not comparable to ours, and thus not significant.
The scientific quest to understand the inner lives of animals, however, is still a relatively
nascent enterprise. It’s also controversial. In the view of some scientists, knowing the mind of
another species is next to impossible. “Attributing subjective feelings to an animal by looking at
its behavior is not science—it’s just guessing,” says David J. Anderson, a neurobiologist at the
California Institute of Technology who studies emotion-linked behaviors in mice, fruit flies, and
jellyfish. Researchers investigating emotions such as grief and empathy in nonhumans must fend
off the charge that they could be anthropomorphizing their subjects.
 Thanakrit Sirichaibhinyo 6509035520

Main idea; Animal have emotional like human. They feel empathy grieve, seek joy just like
human.