October 25, 2011
In today’s Cool Photo of the week, owner Steph Tuft takes duck Essy for a walk with her Staffordshire cross dogs Rachka and DD, in Bournemouth, England. Essy, a 9-month-old Cherry Valley duck, acts as if she is a dog member of the pack, and often goes for walks with the other two pets.
We humans love these stories of animal "friendships," but are they really that? An animal behaviorist and professor of psychology, John Wright, Ph.D., says that these are often real relationships. "If you get a kitten and a mouse together at an early enough age, and they’re sleepy and well-fed and they’re both a little chilly, and they cuddle up to one another, you can certainly create a bond very early on that will carry on into adulthood, as long as the needs are met for both individuals," Wright says. Most young mammals enjoy new experiences that tickle all of their senses. They particularly seek out thermo-tactile sensation, the combination of warmth and softness.
Of course, when animals are young, they are very open to new experiences. But as Wright points out, if the animals are from a species that is very social, those relationships are even more important. That was the case in this famous photograph of Owen and Mzee, the young hippo and old tortoise who bonded together.
Owen, a baby hippo, was separated from his mother by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Owen was rescued and relocated to a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya, where he adopted Mzee, a huge tortoise, as his "mother." The similarities in size, shape and color between the hippo and the tortoise may have been part of the reason Owen attached himself to Mzee, says wildlife biologist Bill Given, a research associate at the Denver Zoo. The social nature of the hippo would have been another important factor.
"Hippos live in social groups called ‘pods.’ It’s abnormal for a young hippo to be all on its own," he says. "That animal has a natural instinct to try and bond with another animal, and if that’s what it’s placed with, then its only choice is to try and be friends with that tortoise."
Why do humans love these photographs and animal "friendship" stories so much? Our enthusiasm for animal friendships says something about us, Given says. "We’re a very social species ourselves. We seek out friendships and approval of others, and I think when we see those things in other animals, they tie into our human emotions,"
Of course, while we recognize the relationship as something similar to what we experience, animal connections are different than the deep and complex relationships we have with our friends and family.
Photos: Chris Ison/AP, AP
Posted by: Seymour Simon
