The Importance of Emotional Experience in Animals

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We don't have evidence that animals have those kinds of concepts. Everything is kind of an inference based on their external behavior. So I think we do, sorry, my eyes are running from allergies. And if she hadn't been laughing and cracking jokes, like I might have thought she was pretty upset.

A dog on its owner’s grave. A killer whale carrying around its dead calf. A goose that isolates when its mate dies. These behaviors in animals may look like human mourning, but should scientists call them "grief?"

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Jennifer Vonk's research study on pet cats reactions to the death of companion animals can be found here.

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