Animal Emotions

As the elephant researcher Joyce Poole wrote in one her books, “It is hard to watch elephants' remarkable behavior during a family or bond group greeting ceremony, the birth of a new family member, a playful interaction, the mating of a relative, the rescue of a family member, or the arrival of a musth male, and not imagine that they feel very strong emotions which could be best described by words such as joy, happiness, love, feelings of friendship, exuberance, amusement, pleasure, compassion, relief, and respect.”

By remaining open to the idea that many animals have rich emotional lives, even if we are wrong in some cases, little truly is lost, but by closing the door on the possibility that many animals have rich emotional lives, even if they are very different from our own, we will lose great opportunities to learn about the lives of animals with whom we share this wondrous planet.


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