That includes increased body temperature, increased neurotransmitter and hormone activity or an animal's avoiding a place where a scientist poked it with a stick the other day.įeelings, on the other hand, happen at a deeper level than emotions. When researchers look at the inner lives of animals, they distinguish between emotions and feelings.Įmotions, write Andrews and de Waal, are "measurable physiological and/or neural states that are often reflected in behavior." The difference between emotions and feelings That, Andrews and de Waal write, is because they remember the pain they felt there, processed it and noted it as something they want to avoid. Octopuses, however, have shown that they avoid places where they previously experienced negative stimuli, even if they are free of pain in that very moment. "Nociception does not necessarily reach the central nervous system and consciousness," they write in the Science article - that means the animal may want to avoid pain, but that this pain doesn't come with any associated feeling. Octopuses can change their color and blend in with the environment Image: Jutta Kirchner/Wiener Haus des Meeres/dpa/picture alliance Octopuses display reactions that go far beyond that, say Andrews and de Waal, citing research from the past 20 years. That type of reaction is known as nociception. ![]() But they don't just react reflexively, like a child pulling away their hand from a hot stove. Kristin Andrews and Frans de Waal posit in a new report published in the journal Science that many animals, including cephalopods such as octopuses, feel pain . There is a consensus in the field of animal sentience that octopuses are conscious beings - that they can feel pain and actively try to avoid it. But Montgomery isn't alone in her assessment. Her take is based on personal experiences, anecdotal evidence. Their last goodbye was one of many interactions that Montgomery has had with octopuses that make her certain they have emotions. For an animal that only lives three to five years, "10 months is decades," Montgomery said. She hadn't seen Montgomery or other people. That was after a period of 10 months during which Octavia had been down in her den, all on her own. She extended her suckers to me and looked me in the face and held me for minutes." She made the effort to come up from the bottom of that tank to see me and to touch me. And she was not hungry ― I handed her a fish and she just took it and put it aside. "I opened the tank and she floated to the top to see me. "She was sick, she was old and she was clearly dying," Montgomery said. When DW spoke with Montgomery, she recalled the last time she saw Octavia. Montgomery with an octopus (not Octavia) at the New England Aquarium Image: New England Aquarium She had befriended four octopuses (yes, that's the correct plural) with very different personalities. Montgomery describes the animal's remarkable intelligence. It was part of Montgomery's research for her 2015 book The Soul of an Octopus. Montgomery had fed Octavia fish and played with her countless times. The author and naturalist had known Octavia for several years. ![]() Her friend, Sy Montgomery, wanted to say goodbye. That's where the animals go to in the wild when they are nearing the end of their lives. She had been moved from her display tank to a quieter, dark place that resembled an octopus' den. Octavia, an octopus at the New England Aquarium in Boston, was old and dying.
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