Animal Intelligence Research from Bekoff

Interdisciplinary research conducted by Marc Bekoff on Animal intelligence provides compelling evidence that animals experience many emotions, including grief, joy fear and love. 

{Marc Bekoff is a professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, as well as co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.  He has won numerous awards for his scientific research including the Exemplar Award from the Animal Behavior Society.}

In his research, Marc Bekoff suggests that in order to advance animal studies, you need to convince "the skeptics.” During research, scientific minds should be kept open to all points of view in order for humans to comprehend a real understanding of animal behavior and emotion. Since there seems to be a lack of consensus on the true nature of animal behavior, Bekoff argues that there is much evidence (and more continually accumulating) that supports animals have complex emotions. He felt that those that disagreed (i.e., Descartes and Skinner who believed that animals are like robots and are conditioned to automatically respond to stimuli), should share the burden of proof with those that argued their premise. 

His thought is by extending "research beyond the underlying physiological mechanisms that mask the richness of the emotional" part of animals is necessary in order to advance scientific knowledge on how emotions affects animals in their daily activities.

Continued on Next Blog Posts. 

Source:
Bekoff, Marc. “Animal Emotions: Exploring Passionate Natures .” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 1 Oct. 2000, academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/50/10/861/233998.