What's It Like To Be Another Animal?
Pretend for a moment that you are gliding through the
sea as a Dall's porpoise, being pushed along by the pressure wave at the
bow of a small ship. Can you feel the freedom of movement, weaving
back and forth in front of the ship and twirling 360 degrees along your
axis as Dall's porpoise often do while bow riding? What's it like?
Switch now to the forest where as a wolf, the ability to smell means almost
everything to you. Because you can smell at least 100,000 times greater
than humans, olfaction can help find you food, a mate, and define your territorial
limits. What's it like? How does it compare with the sea -
where Dall's porpoise, like all other whales, lack the ability to smell?
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Imagining the life and the world of another animal, especially
another mammal like ourselves, can raise many questions. Inherently,
other mammals are obviously different than humans. Why then are humans,
along with other animal species, classified as mammals? Are there
similarities among mammals that link us together? Do animals feel
emotions, problem solve and behave in ways similar to humans? The
answers are a resounding yes but in ways you may not expect.
Looks can be deceiving. Dolphins, with their permanent
smiles, may appear eternally happy or in a constantly good mood.
Like humans, however, dolphins have their “down times” and can become quite
sad or irritable. Because of their lumbering gait, bears are often
perceived as clumsy and intellectually slow. As our increasing knowledge
of bears demonstrates, this perception is far from the truth.
Wolves are another excellent example of animals that are misperceived.
For centuries, humans have thought of wolves as evil, ruthless killers.
On the contrary, wolves can be shy and sensitive creatures, characteristics
that are needed for getting along with pack members.
Umwelts
Although it is beginning to weaken, many human beings
have a strong prejudice towards animals, viewing them as emotionless, stupid
creatures that simply react or lumber their way through life. Using
cetaceans and wolves as examples, the sensitivity and intelligence of animals
can become startling apparent. Cetaceans are the group of mammals
known as whales, dolphins and porpoises. They are from the Order
Cetacea which is a taxonomic grouping of mammals - in this case, whales.
At least some animal species are known to have emotional and intellectual
lives, many of which can be remarkably similar to our own.
Despite the similarity among animals, however, each lives
in its own specific world and responds to the environment based on its
physiology, perceptual abilities and past experience. Jacob von Uexküll
(1937) was one of the first people to try and imagine the different worlds
of animals. He created the term Umwelt to describe the world
an animal perceives and experiences. An Umwelt is not shared
by all animals. It is specific and special to each and every individual
(Kohl & Kohl 1977). In his attempt to describe an animal’s world
experience, von Uexküll stated:
We now know that there is not one space and one time only, but there
are as many spaces and times as there are subjects, as each subject is
contained by its own environment which possesses its own space and time.
Umwelts And Captivity
The concept of Umwelts is not only important in
understanding how animals think but plays a critical role in the capture
of wild animals. By capturing a wild animal, its previous Umwelt
is disrupted or destroyed and the animal must construct a new subjective
world based on its captive conditions. This would require it to struggle
with completely new and strange factors by fitting them into its new perception
of a captive world. It would be expected that not every newly captured
individual could successfully complete such a task. In addition,
success would be contingent upon not only the animal's adaptability, but
its access to the “tools” needed for “building” a new subjective world,
such as proper housing, adequate space, food, low stress, etc.
References
Kohl, J & Kohl, H. 1977. The view from
the oak. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
von Uexküll, J. 1937. Das Problem des
Heimfindens bei Menschen und Tieren. Der primare und sekundare
Raum. Z. ges. Naturwiss.Vol. 2.
