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I’ve been stuck on this random question lately, and I’d love to hear what you all think.
Do animals ever feel… empty? Not in a physical way, but in a “something’s missing” kind of way.
Picture this — I’ve had a lion since it was a baby, but I never let it experience hunting, like hunting a deer. Instead, I give it a deer that’s already been hunted, along with other animals a lion would typically eat. It stays well-fed and healthy, but it never gets to live the life it was born for.
Or take a pigeon. What if I clip its wings so it never flies? I keep it safe, well-fed, and entertained. It lives, sure, but does it feel like something’s missing?
Would they sense the gap — the life they were meant for but never knew? Could animals feel a kind of void, like some people do when they feel disconnected from their purpose?
For me, I’ve always believed every person comes into life with this inner sense — a pull toward something greater than themselves. God, the higher power, watching over them. Even people who say they don’t believe — I wonder if they just ignore it, but they still feel it.
Anyway, I’m curious — do you think animals could feel something similar? Can they feel lost without ever knowing why? Would love to hear your thoughts!
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Minidroit
Personally, I don’t think that animals would feel this emptiness that you talk about: I don’t feel like lions hunt for the pleasure of the pursuit nor do pigeons fly because they were programmed to in someway. While it’s true that all organisms have some desires built into them & some primal instincts, I don’t believe that—in the case of the lion—hunting is something it truly desires. Lions need to hunt in order to live & that’s why they hunt (& they get rewarded for hunting by not feeling hungry). To me: that is the feedback loop that causes lions to hunt; they receive a reward that offsets the energy required for them to survive. Truthfully, if animals were pampered & cared for in the ways you’ve proposed, what would make them want to hunt other than some instincts? I think of it like domesticated kittens: they may have hunting instincts & may hunt animals for pleasure, but I don’t think that they would feel empty if they didn’t have to hunt. Sure, there are survival instincts, but I feel like situations would activate these instincts rather than animal’s inherently feeling the need to hunt & live like wild animals. The only cause of emptiness amongst animals would be from watching other animals hunt & live in the wild (& then they would have to make a judgement about if the wild life is more entertaining than their domesticated life—this is giving animals too much merit because I’m essentially comparing them to captive humans).
Yo, i really love the way u explained it — u made me think. But at the same time, i kinda see it a bit differently too. Like yeah, i get that lions hunt because they’re hungry, but i still feel like it’s part of what they’re made for, you know? Not just the actual hunting, but that whole thing where they see animals, feel that instinct kick in, and know they gotta do something about it. If a lion’s just chilling, eating prepped food, and playing a bit, i feel like they’d get bored. Like, they wouldn’t wake up and think ‘let’s go hunt for fun,’ but it’s more like something would feel off if they never get to do any of it. And yeah, I totally get your point about them only feeling it if they see other animals doing it — that makes sense too. Anyway, i love the way u broke it down, it’s got me thinking in all kinds of directions.
by lilcherry; ; Report
It’s actually a really big discussion in psychology: if actions & personality are innate or shape by society around us. I definitely agree that animals would get bored (because of sensory adaptation & generally everyone would get bored of living well) so it is an interesting discussion to have. Maybe it’s an argument of freedom & stimulus rather than instincts & calling. Don’t know if I would call boredom emptiness though, I feel like there’s a non-negligible distinction between the two
by Minidroit; ; Report
Yeah, I get what you’re saying about boredom and emotions. But when I talk about boredom, I mean there’s no real purpose — like eating, playing, and repeating it all. Kind of like zoo animals, stuck in the same cycle.
I’ve thought about it like neutering cats. For a while, I thought they’d feel “empty” without sex,or like something was missing, like part of their purpose was taken away but people say they don’t miss it. It’s like blind people don’t miss sight because they dont have it in the first place. So, maybe lions, if they never experience hunting or sex, just wouldn’t know what they’re missing.
So, do they feel something’s missing? Or do they just not know the difference?
by lilcherry; ; Report
I guess that they wouldn’t miss it because you can’t miss what you’ve never had, that makes sense to me atleast. It’s really interesting though: would a man blind at birth know what seeing is like—or atleast, what would they imagine seeing is like? It’s fascinating
by Minidroit; ; Report
Yeah, I totally get what you’re saying. It’s like how blind people can’t even imagine what seeing is like because they’ve never experienced it. They wouldn’t think about it or miss it because their mind can’t grasp the concept. Even if someone tries to explain it, they wouldn’t be able to fully understand it.
What made me think about this question is my bird. The person I got him from took something from him that limits how high he can fly. He still flies, but not as high as he could. It’s limited so he doesn’t fly away from us. When I see him fly from the seat to the ground or from his cage to the ground, I notice it and start to wonder if he feels frustrated or misses the ability to fly higher. Since he was born this way, he might not know what he’s missing, but if he had it and lost it, he’d probably miss it.
by lilcherry; ; Report