Cuddling cats, playing dogs, talking dolphins – social interactions in the animal world are often not so different from those in humans. But is this really connected? Yes, says behavioral biologist and author Karsten Brensing: “Basically, animals have just as much friendship as we do.”
Experts have not always agreed on this. “People used to deny that, they didn’t want to humanize the animals, but for a good ten years science has also been talking about friendships in the animal world,” says Brensing.
For example with dolphins. They can still remember former companions more than 20 years later, as a US researcher found out. You can recognize a companion by its individual name whistle, even if you haven’t heard it for many years, reported the US researcher Jason Bruck in the “Proceedings B” of the British Royal Society. Signature whistles are like the names of dolphins. Every animal learns its own whistle at a young age, with which it then introduces itself to fellow animals.
“Social Brain Hypothesis”
In evolutionary terms, social bonds are sometimes ascribed a major role. “Many researchers assume that friendship is at the beginning of intelligence,” says Brensing. The so-called “Social Brain Hypothesis” proposes that certain animals evolved large brains, which are also capable of complex intelligence, solely to manage their increasingly complicated social lives.
It used to be assumed that such relationships always had a specific purpose – according to the principle: “I’ll give you something, you give me something,” says Brensing. For example, delousing was examined in chimpanzees: “It was very clear that depending on the hierarchy, one deloused more than the other. They calculated very precisely.”
In the meantime, one considers togetherness in the animal world larger. “You see them as mechanisms that are less mathematical and more emotional,” says Brensing. As in humans, hormones are involved – for example the love hormone oxytocin. “When I know someone well, an oxytocin source bubbles up in me, which on the one hand makes me feel very comfortable and on the other hand really sacrifices me for the other person.”
Memory plays a big role
But not everyone is capable of forming intimate relationships, Brensing explains. “They must have certain mental abilities, such as a lifetime memory, and they must be able to recognize individuals.” There are therefore no friendships within a school of fish or a herd of hundreds of cattle in which the individual specimens are strangers to each other. “But as soon as you look at smaller groups where the animals know each other, that’s common.”
According to Brensing, friendships are usually examined using network analyses, in which individual animals are identified and observed. For example, among baboons and elephants, in which the males leave the group and the females remain with the group into which they were born throughout their lives, various studies have uncovered friendships, particularly between females. In contrast, male bonds are more common in dolphins, where females often migrate and males stay behind, two US behavioral biologists reported in a summary study.
The elephant ladies form long-term bonds, especially with their mothers, daughters and sisters. However, not all close bonds between animals are based on kinship. According to the US study, mares also form lasting relationships with other members of their herd, even if they are not related. And many male chimps fixate most strongly on another, unrelated male.
Early childhood imprint and character
As with people, who is attached to whom has a lot to do with character and personality. Animals often choose companions who are similar to themselves, says zoologist and presenter Kate Kitchenham. “With dogs, we know that they make friends with similar breeds, for example because they have similar movement preferences as themselves,” she explains. “A herding dog like a Border Collie always feels the need to circle around, to regulate, to intervene. When he’s playing with a Labrador, he’s constantly intervening and trying to drive him somewhere. And then the game doesn’t really get going. “
But early childhood experiences also play a major role and can compensate for differences in character. “When a mastiff grows up with a dachshund, they develop a very individual, coordinated play behavior and can form a super close bond like no other dog,” says Kitchenham.
Species keep to themselves
Cross-species connections could also develop in this way, especially in childhood. “Whether human, dog or cow, we are all more open in this phase of life, also with regard to possible relationship partners.” If, for example, a kitten comes to puppies during this phase, the cat learns to understand dog language and to communicate with them. Then dogs and cats would quickly become buddies.
In nature, however, this phenomenon has rarely been observed. “There are very few examples of different species of animals forming close friendships in the wild,” says Kitchenham. One such rare example is the bond between wolves and ravens, which, according to Kitchenham, act as a hunting community on the one hand, but also play with each other and build trust in one another apart from this functional relationship.
Without a person who brings the animals together and thus creates a framework, such friendships would only rarely be observed, says the behavioral researcher. Under human care, however, there have been connections that have received worldwide attention, such as that between a tiger and a billy goat in a Russian zoo or a camel and an elephant in a Danish circus.
