Fascinating Ways Animals Behave Like Humans

In our anthropocentric way of thinking, humans like to pretend we’re very different from other animals. And while this is largely true (unless dogs have built airplanes and no one told us), animal behaviors and human behaviors overlap much more than you might expect. Here are four examples.

Dolphins Like to Unwind and Play

While there are a lot of very sinister facts we could share about dolphins, some are wholesome: dolphins like playing games with each other.

While other animal species do play, it’s mostly seen in young creatures practicing necessary skills like hunting. Dolphins, by contrast, play even as adults. Some have been observed playing tag using seaweed, and even making air bubble rings to play with, seemingly serving no purpose other than to enjoy each other’s company and keep themselves occupied.

If only we could teach them volleyball, now that would be something.

Bears Appreciate a Beautiful Sunset

Everyone has, at one point, stopped to admire the scenery. While we might assume only humans are capable of appreciating beauty, our ursine friends also enjoy a nice vista.

Bears have frequently been observed sitting and staring off over the landscape or even watching a sunset. While we can’t actually be sure without bear telepathy, it seems like bears just enjoy natural beauty. Some researchers theorize that bears will make their dens or nests in areas with a pleasant view.

It’s possible this is just a coincidence… but then, bears may also be able to recognize their own reflections, which is not a common occurrence in the animal kingdom.

Brown Rats Are Empaths

For decades, humans assumed that only other primates could exhibit perhaps the most human trait of all: empathy. Yet recently, a very different critter has been shown to care about their fellows - the humble brown rat.

Through numerous experiments, researchers have found that rats will help other rats trapped in cages escape. This is true even if they don’t know the other rat. Moreover, when tempted with a pile of chocolate chips, uncaged rats will often still free their trapped brethren first before going for the food, and even save some of the food for the other rat!

We humans could learn something from rats rather than the other way around.

Elephant Herds Have Their Own Cultures

If you’re picking a mammal that’s unlike humans in every way, the elephant is an obvious choice. Just look at them!

But despite our physical differences, it’s very possible that elephants share a human trait most other animals can’t boast: culture.

Elephants are smart and social animals, leading researchers to believe elephants could have traditions influencing their communication and cognitive abilities. There’s evidence that elephants pass down social and ecological knowledge from older elephants to younger calves, with the matriarch of each herd often serving as a repository of the herd’s knowledge.

Moreover, there’s documented evidence of adult elephants celebrating births (even for calves that are not their own) and holding funerals which, in the case of Asian elephants, include burying their dead. Most interestingly, there’s evidence that elephant cultures vary by herd.

If that doesn’t sound human, we don’t know what does. Maybe it would help humans protect our environment when we realize that the things we believe make us superior to other species might just be common traits throughout the animal kingdom. We may not be as alone, or as superior, as we thought.

References:
A new model of empathy: The rat | Helping your fellow rat: Rodents show empathy-driven behavior | Do elephants have culture? | Tragic And Mysterious Elephant Burial Ritual Witnessed by Scientists | Watch: Adult elephants react to birth of new baby in their herd | Playing with dolphins | How Dolphins Play With and Carry Objects in the Wild | Not Winging It, But Ringing It | The curious reasons why dolphins play | Bears Are Often Spotted Admiring Beautiful Vistas, Suggesting They May Have a Sense of Beauty | Fun Facts Regarding The Intelligence Levels Of Bears