KEY POINTS:
When we talk about crocodile tears, dogged determination or laughing like a hyena we might not be that far off the mark, according to a visiting US biologist who says animals have emotions just like us.
Marc Bekoff, professor of biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is
in Australia to give a series of public talks on the emotional lives of animals.
Dr Bekoff says scientists have moved on from the presumption that the way animals act is the result of programmed behaviour.
"It's not a question of if they have emotions but why they have evolved," he says.
Animals also have personalities, he says.
Dr Bekoff says research has shown that elephants can experience grief, mice feel empathy, rats get excited about playing with a friend, sharks get mad and koalas have likes and dislikes.
Crocodile mums care for their kids, squid can be shy, fish can have addictive personalities and even coyotes get the blues.
"There are shy animals, bold animals, risk-takers ... some animals wake up in the morning depressed and some wake up raring to go," he says.
Dr Bekoff says there is even evidence that animals posses a morality and have a unique "point of view on the world".
Research into how social carnivores like coyotes, wolves, dogs and foxes play shows "very clearly" that animals know right and wrong and that they can develop the idea of justice, he says.
"If I want to play with you I can't invite you to play and be unfair," he says. "I need to be fair, I need to be just.
"About four years ago people thought I had a brain tumour when I was doing this work, but now it's really well accepted."
Dr Bekoff says recent research in cognitive ethology (animal behaviour) and neuroscience shows that animals have similar brain structures and chemistry to humans.
A study published in the journal Nature in 2006 identified spindle neurones _ which in humans are connected to emotional responses and social behaviour _ in whales, he says.
Dr Bekoff says it's easy to recognise emotions in animals like dogs and chimpanzees because they are familiar to us. As animals become less "like us", it's not so easy.
But this doesn't mean the emotions aren't there. "The data is also there that shows reptiles and certainly birds and even fish show fear responses.
"Fish show the same responses to morphine as do humans.
"There's no doubt that when we develop [appropriate techniques] we will discover that the same brain structures that are important in humans in joy, for example, are the same in rats and dogs.
"We know now that rats show the same dopamine response to the expectation of playing with their friends as do humans.
"We also know that mice show empathy _ they feel the pain of other mice."
Animals can also develop psychopathology, Dr Bekoff says. For example, he says he has come across a coyote that "fulfilled the criteria of autism". A bipolar wolf, however, would have poor survival chances in the wild.
It's not surprising that animals have emotions, Dr Bekoff says, because they serve the evolutionary purpose of ensuring survival and reproductive fitness.
Emotions drive behaviour, provide for appropriate responses to threatening situations and act as a "social glue" for animals that depend on living in a group.
A vegetarian, Dr Bekoff says understanding that animals have emotions has important implications for the way we treat them.
"It means good welfare isn't enough," he says.
"We can say we're taking good care of animals but there are still existing laws and regulations that allow you to mistreat them."
He is writing a book, The Animal Manifesto, which is slated for publication next year.
- AAP