Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: IzzieC on 06/03/2018 14:45:17
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Zayn asks:
Are animals aware of their mortality?
What do you think?
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Some animals clearly are. People are animals, and are quite aware of their mortality.
There is some evidence that dogs, great apes, elephants, and even pigs and some cetaceans are aware of the concept of mortality: they appear to mourn after the death of family members and "friends," and I believe there is also some evidence of mourning shortly prior to the death of a family member or friends.
As to understanding their own mortality, it is hard to have hard evidence of that without animals that communicate with us. Luckily both dogs and some great apes can do so quite effectively, so there is anecdotal evidence of dogs communicating to their companions that they are dying, and there is Koko (a gorilla proficient in sign language--if you don't know who she is, you should look her up!)