Continuing with the theme about ‘love’, we will be looking at the facts around animals and if they can fall in love.
What is love?
Love is one of life’s greatest mystery. Loving someone can be the most amazing feeling but this can lead to vulnerability and heart break. Emotions that is thought to be solely unique to humans. So how would you describe ‘love’?
Does being in love, or feeling in love give you a warm feeling inside? Do you feel happy? Feel safe? Is it unconditional?
It is quite difficult to describe what love is, however you can describe how it makes you feel but this is subjective. How I would describe what love means to me, may be very different to you. The same can be said for happiness. What makes me feel happy, or how I describe what it feels like for me to be happy, will most likely being different to you. Describing love as a tangible thing is tricky for humans, even more so for animals.
Biologists are cautioned against anthropomorphizing animals, giving them human traits and meaning as this can cause more harm then good. Afterall, animals are not humans. Yes, we may fall in the group known as mammals, but as a species, we are unique when compared to other mammalian species.
Scientists have tried to study ‘love’ by monitoring activity in the brain as well as chemicals in the body. For example, there are chemical signs of love, like increased production of certain hormones, such as oxytocin, named the ‘love hormone’. Oxytocin is released during skin to skin between mother and her baby. This hormone kick starts the mothers milk production and helps to form that emotional bond, giving the sense of unconditional love and happiness. These feel good hormones are thought to be the brains way of rewarding you for a behaviour they like, like eating chocolate, having a hug or finding a £10 note in your coat pocket. These feelings alone cannot prove love, but these hormones maybe an underlying part of it.
So, can animals fall in love?
It is researched and understood that animals mate, form emotional bonds and co-parent. However, determining whether they can ‘fall in love’ or feel the emotions surrounding love is very difficult to prove. Especially, as mentioned previously, love is subjective. What one person may describe as being in love is like for them, may be completely different to another.
There are many animal species that form close bonds. For example, our pets appear to love us. Elephants appear to mourn the death of other elephants. African wild dogs care for the sick and injured in their pack. These prove that animals can form emotional attachments but doesn’t prove if they feel love like humans.
Humans (generally speaking) form monogamous bonds, with the plan to spend the rest of our lives with our partner and sharing the parental duties of raising our children. Monogamy is not unique to humans and can be seen in many other animal species, such as the Lilac-breasted roller, who featured in last weeks #factfriday. Animals that are monogamous are thought to have evolved this way as they usually require both parent’s support in raising their offspring to ensure their survival. The animal choses their mate based on their ability to convince the female that they are the strongest, healthiest and have the best genes. When we think about humans choosing a lifelong partner, there appears to be a lot more going on emotionally then just checking their medical history. It starts off with being attracted to the person (whether that be looks or personality, or both) then we begin to form deeper emotional connections that we see as being in love. Animals match making is far more practical then whether their star signs are compatible.
While it is incredibly sweet to think about animals falling in love, learning how animals form attachments to their mates can be critically important for scientists working to preserve endangered species. The close bonds formed, the care and affection animals show to one another may simply be to ensure the survival of themselves, their offspring, their social group or their genetics. So, going back to the original question, do animals fall in love or feel love? The fact is, this is yet to be proven.
Come back next Friday for more interesting facts, #factfriday !
