Can animal have suicidal thoughts, can they have self doubt, can animals understand time
Like these more complicated emotions
In: Biology
Yes is the short answer.
The longer answer is that we know from scientific experiments that various animals feel various emotions. Most of us know it intuitively from interacting with a pet.
What’s far more difficult to know is the range of emotions any one species experiences, and whether they experience those emotions in the same way as a human.
Self reflection is a much harder thing to test for, and I don’t know the science behind that in animals – maybe someone smarter will answer.
As to suicide, we do see suicide in animals, but the only version of it of which I am aware is parasite driven (it’s super creepy too). Otherwise my understanding is that survival is a dominant instinct in all animals.
Edit: forgot to mention time – yes, animals experience and understand time, but that experience varies dramatically across species. Some have intelligence that demonstrates an understanding of time – delayed gratification for instance. Some display an understanding of “object permanence”, that something there in the past still exists even if they can’t see it right now. Many display time-related instincts like feeding, sleeping, mating, and migrating.
None of them, however, are looking at a clock the same way you and I do.
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