How Do Wild Animals Think?

[BloomingMarvellous]

I had a chat with my Sons friend on Friday, I told him of a video that I had put on Youtube recently of a Grass Snake eating a Frog, I asked him what he thought the Frog was thinking as the Snake gobbled him alive. I Couldn't believe his humanized answer, had to go down to the bottom of the garden to laugh it off.

Did the Frog think, "I'm being eaten alive by a Snake? Or, did the Frog, just think nothing?

[STYRBJORN]

Originally Posted by BloomingMarvellous

I had a chat with my Sons friend on Friday, I told him of a video that I had put on Youtube recently of a Grass Snake eating a Frog, I asked him what he thought the Frog was thinking as the Snake gobbled him alive. I Couldn't believe his humanized answer, had to go down to the bottom of the garden to laugh it off.

Did the Frog think, "I'm being eaten alive by a Snake? Or, did the Frog, just think nothing?

"Wish I'd hopped it while I had the chance"

Ric

[wizzo]

I'm sure that the Frog would have thought something unprintible . I'd say that animals do have a sense of their impending doom. As to whether or not, they understand that they will not be in exsistance in a short while is debatable. The fact that most, if not all living things flee, when being predated, probably demonstrates that they realise something bad is likely to happen. Or is this an inbuilt reflex action.
I can see this becoming a very long and very interesting thread. Stand by for some fireworks! Wizzo

[tcvarlh]

This is a thing that has always, I was going to say, worried me, but perhaps fascinated is the better word. An animal when cornered by say, lions, will attempt to run right up until a certain moment then it appears to surrender and allow itself to become lunch. I've seen it so often as we all have. Humans don't do this, we fight literally to the death, our own mostly, but we try to inflict as much damage on our attacker as we can. Different thought processes, awareness, bloody mindedness, soul? I don't know. I did consider that perhaps the acceptance of a violent end is preferable to slow and lingering death from old age and infirmity, starvation etc. on the animal's part whereas we generally care for our aged. Even communal animals are living a solitary life.
Perhaps our cousins are simply more philosophical about life and death than we are? One less thing to worry about eh?
?
h

[CharlieCreek]

When we have very ill hedgehogs in they will allow a lot more human contact and in some cases seem to want the contact. They will come to the front of the hog pens when we go into the rescue area, they will be a lot easier to handle, i.e. less balling when we are treating them. When they are very sick the seem to want to be in closer contact far more happy curled on a lap than in their pens.

When they are getting better they revert back to simply tolerating contact becoming more huffy the better they get.

Often when treating a specific injury their tendency will be initially to ball but then something changes and they allow us to treat the injury without complaint.

As an example a hog came in last night with netting wrapped around its head and thoat. Hogs will ball if anything is put near their head area as a reflex action but as I slowly started snipping the netting away at the back of the head, the hog unballed allowing me to put it on it's side and use the snippers to slowly cut away and unwrap the netting around it's throat and nose balling again when I had finished. It's not always like this but often they do seem to somehow connect your actions with 'help' rather than threat - so their has to be a recognition process there somewhere.

Now this could be read in many ways, but it does often seem that they know when we are trying to help and as I say at times they seem to need the contact for while.

Another bizarre behavior I have seen a few times is when a hog is close to death (often I just hold them on my lap when I know they are near to dying) that just before dying (and this has happened a few times) that they have either licked my hand or nuzzled into my hand just before they expire.

Coincidence, intelligence or miss read behavior and the want to humanize on our part, I don't know. But I am sure that a lot more goes on in those little heads than we give them credit for.

[tcvarlh]

I have had similar Charlie, it is inexplicable and emotionally disturbing too, why a wild critter would make that final contact, why we do it is easily explained. Maybe there is just a circle of life. Who knows?
h

[STYRBJORN]

Rule one for an ethologist is the 4Fs. Even protozoa exhibit this.
Feed or
Fight or
Flee or . . .
Fornicate