Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Animalistic Affection



Three of my four readers have probably already seen this video of otters holding hands, but I wonder how many stayed with it to the end. What happens just before the end is what caught my attention.

Once I saw that, I wasn't able to write off the episode as coincidence or buy into an explanation that involves disparaging the idea that many animals are capable of expressing emotions beyond those involved in basic survival. These otters obviously share a genuine affection for each other.

By the way, raccoons are known to visibly grieve when a loved one dies. I hope I never see it for myself, but I understand it is particularly touching to see when a family member is accidentally killed by a car.

4 comments:

chuck b. said...

Very cute. We have so much to learn about animals. I suppose so much has already been learned; I just don't know very much about them myself. Kind of a random comment.

reader_iam said...

It's not working for me, directly from your site. I'll check it againlater.

Randy said...

Maybe the otters don't like you, R_IAM! They are playing for Chuck and me. ;-)

Chuck: I had an up-close-and-personal introduction to just how basic animals can be when a neighbor's dog had a stroke and eventually recovered. It was tethered to a chain in their garage - a truly pitiful sight and I visited it as often as I could every day. Their thought processes are pretty basic, apparently.

benning said...

Adorable! Nice find, IR.