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It's not if you take a simple view of emotion. What's controversial is whether or not they feel complex emotions. Is that really depression or just sadness? Do

by jimmy1 8y ago

It's not if you take a simple view of emotion. What's controversial is whether or not they feel complex emotions. Is that really depression or just sadness? Do adult elephants have periods of melancholy that are suddenly brought on by seeing elephant children playing in the watering hole which causes the adult elephants to remember their home town and childhoods and wish they never came to this distant country for better opportunities -- leading to regret, and then anxiety because they realized they did this all for naught are and feel trapped in their current situation? Who knows. I doubt it.

radicaldreamer 8y ago
If you've been around elephants much, your scenario is in no way implausible.
sjtindell 8y ago
That’s not a complex emotion, it’s a story. The deep related emotions themselves could still be felt.
tdb7893 8y ago
It's not controversial that many mammals have emotions very very similar to humans (my wife is literally an animal welfare researcher). You're talking about more about how they think than their emotions, whether they are sad because they see their dead child or sad because they regret some complex chain of events it's still the same emotion, the only difference is their ability to understand the chain of events.
selune 8y ago
It has been speculated that elephants know bones of elephants from other animals and that they kind of "mourn" their dead [1][2] in a way. Most mammals would react to fresh corpses of members of the same species, most would feel what we would call sadness when loosing a member of tribe, parent etc. But feeling emotions towards bones? That's pretty complex IMO. I've also read somewhere about instances of elephants "burying" other elephants via covering their bodies with leaves. I'll edit and add a source if I manage to find it. [1]: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1497634.htm http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1497634.htm [2]: https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/photos/12-facts-change-way-see-elephants/elephants-honor-bones-their-dead https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/photos/12-facts-ch...

by jimmy1 8y ago

radicaldreamer 8y ago

If you've been around elephants much, your scenario is in no way implausible.

sjtindell 8y ago

That’s not a complex emotion, it’s a story. The deep related emotions themselves could still be felt.

tdb7893 8y ago

It's not controversial that many mammals have emotions very very similar to humans (my wife is literally an animal welfare researcher). You're talking about more about how they think than their emotions, whether they are sad because they see their dead child or sad because they regret some complex chain of events it's still the same emotion, the only difference is their ability to understand the chain of events.

selune 8y ago

It has been speculated that elephants know bones of elephants from other animals and that they kind of "mourn" their dead [1][2] in a way. Most mammals would react to fresh corpses of members of the same species, most would feel what we would call sadness when loosing a member of tribe, parent etc. But feeling emotions towards bones? That's pretty complex IMO. I've also read somewhere about instances of elephants "burying" other elephants via covering their bodies with leaves. I'll edit and add a source if I manage to find it. [1]: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1497634.htm http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1497634.htm [2]: https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/photos/12-facts-change-way-see-elephants/elephants-honor-bones-their-dead https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/photos/12-facts-ch...