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It's not quite what you're looking for, but animals have at least been shown to exhibit preference of what species animals they will eat. Consider a dog which

It's not quite what you're looking for, but animals have at least been shown to exhibit preference of what species animals they will eat. Consider a dog which has been raised around cats, which might hunt a rabbit but not another cat.

tmh88j 8y ago
>It's not quite what you're looking for, but animals have at least been shown to exhibit preference of what species animals they will eat. Occam's razor says that most wild animals exhibit preference of what species they'll eat based on taste and availability of food, not because of ethics. I said most because I'm not a wildlife biologist and there always seems to be strange outliers, but I have a hard time believing an omnivore/carnivore, such as a bear, would willingly choose vegetation 100% of the time because of ethics when there's plenty of game of its preference to eat. >Consider a dog which has been raised around cats, which might hunt a rabbit but not another cat. Most domesticated dogs that were raised alongside cats won't eat them because they've learned that they're not allowed to. The ones that do attack children and other pets are frequently euthanized.
- nearbuy 8y ago
  Dogs raised alongside cats never even try to eat them to begin with. You don't need to teach them it's not allowed. There must be another explanation.
  - tmh88j 8y ago
    >Dogs raised alongside cats never even try to eat them to begin with. You don't need to teach them it's not allowed. That's an absurd statement. While tempers of dogs vary from one to the next just like humans, I vehemently disagree to the extent that I'm hesitant to believe you've ever raised a puppy, or even have been exposed to many dogs for that matter. Plenty of pet dogs behave more like their wolf ancestors than others.
    - kakarot 8y ago
      I've raised dozens of dogs, and like humans, some need some coaching about good behavior and some get along just fine without ever needing discipline. That's a separate issue from the one I raised, namely that animals display species-oriented preference in their dietary range, and that for some animals this preference can be emotionally/socially based.
      - tmh88j 8y ago
        >animals display species-oriented preference in their dietary range, and that for some animals this preference can be emotionally/socially based. If there is any species-oriented preferences outside of taste and availability, it's purely out of a symbiotic relationship that they benefit from. Wolves aren't going to stop hunting deer unless the deer somehow provide additional sources of food that the wolves realize only exists because of the deer's help.
        laumars 8y ago
        > If there is any species-oriented preferences outside of taste and availability, it's purely out of a symbiotic relationship that they benefit from. Isn’t that how humans operate as well? People keep pets that they get satisfaction from but we don’t eat our pets. Then you have the debate of whether true altruism exists or whether people do even our most selfless acts because of the endorphin rush we get from helping others.
        kakarot 8y ago
        In many cases, I have observed that an emotional connection with another animal is enough to prevent hunting of either just the animal itself or in some cases the entire species. In a more extreme example I've known chickens to run amok and play with dogs like they were one of their own. And not just dogs. I have trained cats to become friendly to individual rats (I think instinct is too strong), and I have seen some species express either preference or disdain for other species. My personal analysis is that this has more to do with social and emotional conditioning, a true recognition of another animal as "friendly" despite not offering a symbiotic relationship, rather than directly as a result of behavioral conditioning with positive/negative stimulus. I think a better indicator of the difference between us and pets is that we keep pets, and further, that we sometimes keep pets purely for emotional benefits. Incidences of non-humans keeping other animals as pets is extremely rare and seemingly limited to primates. [0] I think that says a lot about our psychology. But it's a little pointless to debate about whether other mammals experience meaningful emotions. They do. Meaningful emotions are actionable. That's why our emotions seem meaningful. [0] https://bioone.org/journals/Neotropical-Primates/volume-13/issue-1/1413-4705.13.1.29/Extraordinary-Observation-Of-Wild-Capuchin-Monkey--Marmoset-Association/10.1896/1413-4705.13.1.29.full https://bioone.org/journals/Neotropical-Primates/volume-13/i...
yeahitslikethat 8y ago
They distinguish among ages of things they eat within the same species too.

tmh88j 8y ago

>It's not quite what you're looking for, but animals have at least been shown to exhibit preference of what species animals they will eat. Occam's razor says that most wild animals exhibit preference of what species they'll eat based on taste and availability of food, not because of ethics. I said most because I'm not a wildlife biologist and there always seems to be strange outliers, but I have a hard time believing an omnivore/carnivore, such as a bear, would willingly choose vegetation 100% of the time because of ethics when there's plenty of game of its preference to eat. >Consider a dog which has been raised around cats, which might hunt a rabbit but not another cat. Most domesticated dogs that were raised alongside cats won't eat them because they've learned that they're not allowed to. The ones that do attack children and other pets are frequently euthanized.

nearbuy 8y ago
Dogs raised alongside cats never even try to eat them to begin with. You don't need to teach them it's not allowed. There must be another explanation.
- tmh88j 8y ago
  >Dogs raised alongside cats never even try to eat them to begin with. You don't need to teach them it's not allowed. That's an absurd statement. While tempers of dogs vary from one to the next just like humans, I vehemently disagree to the extent that I'm hesitant to believe you've ever raised a puppy, or even have been exposed to many dogs for that matter. Plenty of pet dogs behave more like their wolf ancestors than others.
  - kakarot 8y ago
    I've raised dozens of dogs, and like humans, some need some coaching about good behavior and some get along just fine without ever needing discipline. That's a separate issue from the one I raised, namely that animals display species-oriented preference in their dietary range, and that for some animals this preference can be emotionally/socially based.
    - tmh88j 8y ago
      >animals display species-oriented preference in their dietary range, and that for some animals this preference can be emotionally/socially based. If there is any species-oriented preferences outside of taste and availability, it's purely out of a symbiotic relationship that they benefit from. Wolves aren't going to stop hunting deer unless the deer somehow provide additional sources of food that the wolves realize only exists because of the deer's help.
      - laumars 8y ago
        > If there is any species-oriented preferences outside of taste and availability, it's purely out of a symbiotic relationship that they benefit from. Isn’t that how humans operate as well? People keep pets that they get satisfaction from but we don’t eat our pets. Then you have the debate of whether true altruism exists or whether people do even our most selfless acts because of the endorphin rush we get from helping others.
      - kakarot 8y ago
        In many cases, I have observed that an emotional connection with another animal is enough to prevent hunting of either just the animal itself or in some cases the entire species. In a more extreme example I've known chickens to run amok and play with dogs like they were one of their own. And not just dogs. I have trained cats to become friendly to individual rats (I think instinct is too strong), and I have seen some species express either preference or disdain for other species. My personal analysis is that this has more to do with social and emotional conditioning, a true recognition of another animal as "friendly" despite not offering a symbiotic relationship, rather than directly as a result of behavioral conditioning with positive/negative stimulus. I think a better indicator of the difference between us and pets is that we keep pets, and further, that we sometimes keep pets purely for emotional benefits. Incidences of non-humans keeping other animals as pets is extremely rare and seemingly limited to primates. [0] I think that says a lot about our psychology. But it's a little pointless to debate about whether other mammals experience meaningful emotions. They do. Meaningful emotions are actionable. That's why our emotions seem meaningful. [0] https://bioone.org/journals/Neotropical-Primates/volume-13/issue-1/1413-4705.13.1.29/Extraordinary-Observation-Of-Wild-Capuchin-Monkey--Marmoset-Association/10.1896/1413-4705.13.1.29.full https://bioone.org/journals/Neotropical-Primates/volume-13/i...

yeahitslikethat 8y ago

They distinguish among ages of things they eat within the same species too.