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Who knew animals could make friends too? Erica Goode reports that animal alliances could add to an understanding of how species communicate
A goat frolics with a baby rhinoceros. A pig nestles up to a house cat. A rat snake makes nice with the dwarf hamster originally intended as its lunch. Videos of unlikely animal pairs romping or snuggling have become so common that they are piquing the interest of some scientists, who say they invite more systematic study. Among other things, researchers say, the alliances could add to an understanding of how species communicate, what propels certain animals to connect across species lines and the degree to which some animals can adopt the behaviours of other species.
Science has not entirely ignored unusual interactions between species. Biologists have described relationships formed to achieve a specific goal, like the co-operative hunting between groupers and moray eels. And in the mid-1900s, Konrad Lorenz and other ethologists demonstrated that during critical periods after birth, certain birds and other animals would follow the first moving object they saw, whether animal, human or machine, a phenomenon known as imprinting. Lorenz was famously photographed with a gaggle of “imprinted” geese trailing behind him.
Yet until recently, any suggestion that interspecies relationships might be based simply on companionship would probably have been met with derision, dismissed as Pixar-like anthropomorphism. Research has gradually eroded some boundaries between homo sapiens and other animals. Other species, it turns out, share abilities once considered exclusive to humans, including some emotions, tool use, counting, certain aspects of language and even a moral sense.
To be sure, some scientists remain skeptical that the examples of cross-species relations offer much more to science than a hefty dose of cuteness. But others see fertile ground for investigation even in bonds formed in captivity or other domesticated settings.
“There are so many questions,” said Barbara Smuts, a primate researcher at the University of Michigan who in 1985 shocked some of her colleagues by applying the word “friendship” to describe bonds between female baboons. “We know this is happening between all sorts of species. I think eventually the scientific community will catch up.”
Crossing the barriers
In the meantime, there is no shortage of stories about animals that have reached out across species barriers, some supplied by researchers like Smuts, who described watching her dog, Safi, an 80-pound German shepherd mix, forge a friendship with a donkey named Wister on a ranch in Wyoming in the 1990s. At first, Wister charged and kicked at the dog, recognising her as a potential threat. But gradually, Safi coaxed Wister to interact, performing repeated play bows and running up and down along the fence of the corral where the donkey was penned. The dog taught the donkey to pick up a stick and carry it in its mouth, although, Smuts said, “He looked like he didn’t quite know why he was walking around with a stick in his mouth.” The two animals also appeared to work out a common language.
Cross-species interaction
Barbara J King, an anthropologist at the College of William and Mary, said that she hoped researchers would begin to collect examples of cross-species interactions to build a database that would merit scientific scrutiny. “I think we’re not even at the point of being able to extract patterns because the database is so small,” she said, adding that the topic could also benefit from a rigorous definition of what constitutes a “friendship” between members of different species.
Barbara suggested some criteria. A relationship, she proposed, must be sustained; there must be mutuality, with both of the animals engaged in the interaction; and some sort of accommodation must take place in the service of the relationship, whether a modification in behaviour or in communication.
Even in captivity, however, sustained bonds evoke interesting observations. Marc Bekoff, a professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said examples that involve animals raised together from a young age illustrate the openness present in many species for some time after birth.
At San Diego Zoo and Safari Park, trainers have been pairing cheetahs with dogs at an early age. The dogs have a socialising effect on the skittish cats, the zoo has found, allowing trainers to take the cheetahs to public events as “ambassador animals.” Communing between species, researchers said, can inspire speculation not just about the animals but also about the humans that are so fascinated by them.