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We can get an idea of how happy an animal is by observing what they do.

Ferrets chirp when they are having a good time, horses will point their ears towards you and have a relaxed mouth, and parrots sing, whistle, or make a grinding, purring sound with their beak.

Play is one of the more reliable and universal ways to tell if a creature is content. Playful animals will jump into the air, pounce, kick their feet up while they run, and generally be more energetic than they need to be.

But for a more visual explanation, there's the Instagram account The Snuggle Is Real. It shares wholesome photos of both wild and domestic animals living the good life and has made quite a few new posts since our last publication on it, so we thought we can't let you fall behind on its content.

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    According to Melissa Starling, a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney, who holds a BSc (Hons) in zoology and a Ph.D. in dog behavior, personality, emotions and cognition, we can often get a good idea if animals are happy or unhappy by looking at how they are behaving in general.

    "A cat that purrs because it's happy may also be winding her body around your legs, or relaxed in your lap, have her tail high in the air, or roll over on her back," Starling said. "All this shows she is trusting and interested."

    "Likewise, a rabbit grinding its teeth while relaxing will also likely be stretching its body out as well. You can tell how relaxed a rabbit is by how stretched out it is while resting. If a rabbit is in pain, it tends to hunch up and squeeze its eyes half shut like it is wincing. Animals that are relaxed and not tense are usually happy and content."

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    Starling said we can also see what animals like to do by what they choose to come back to over and over again.

    "If your animal chooses to lie in the sun or look for tasty treats or dig holes, then you know when they are doing that, they are probably happy," the researcher explained.

    "So, to know when an animal is happy, we need to look at more than what one body part is doing, and we might need to watch them to get to know them."

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    #6

    @whyfallinlove.lol

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    Bored Retsuko
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Friendly reminder: downvotes are NOT dislike buttons. Downvoting a comment just because you don't agree = not cool. If a comment gets downvoted, its author will get banned from the site. So please downvote only in case of obvious spam ("how to make cash") or if someone is literally harrassing a fellow panda

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    The question of how do we know if our pets—especially the prehistoric ones—are content has been explored for centuries.

    In 1872, Charles Darwin published a whole book on the subject, suggesting that humans and many animals express emotions in similar ways—if anything, emotions actually evolved before our species did.

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    But philosopher Thomas Nagel said that we’ll never know if this is true or not. In his paper 'What is it like to be a bat?' Nagel wrote that even if we spent our days “hanging upsidedown by one’s feet in an attic,” it’s impossible to know how a bat feels, and not even Batman has that kind of inner access.

    #13

    @thingsiwantok

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    Lemonade Midnight
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I don't get why this is on the list? It's just a picture of a chess board...

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    But just because we aren't 100 percent sure how an animal feels, doesn’t mean they don’t feel something.

    Dolphins, cows, chimpanzees, dogs, and even squirrels have similar emotional processing centers in the brain as humans, so at the very least, they would experience basic emotions like fear, anger, grief, and joy.

    One group of scientists was so sure of this that they signed the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness in 2012, acknowledging that all mammals and birds (and some invertebrates, like octopuses) are conscious creatures.

    #17

    @allofyourproblemsever

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    Tempest
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Finally found who’s been buying all those watermelons in the maths questions!

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    Plus, we've all witnessed heartfelt and heart-wrenching displays of animal emotions, like when Damini the elephant reportedly died of grief following the death of her pachyderm partner at the zoo.

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    Or when Christian the lion joyfully embraced the men who reared him after spending nine months apart.

    #19

    @iamcringeok

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    Charlie grace
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I think this is my favourite. It doesn't look like this is their first time climbing that tree

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    #21

    @measatherapist

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    Sarah Stalder
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That looks like someone stacked them on top of each other. I hope not.

    Creature Cargeaux
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    No. Turtles do this all they time. I have 11 turtles & they all climb on each others backs to get closer to the heat lamp in their tub. Even though their tub is 700 gallons & has 4 separate platforms with heat lamps.... they still stack on top of one another. I didn't know they also did this in the wild though. See how he's spreading out his legs... he's sunbathing. He's up there on purpose. If someone stacked them they definitely wouldn't just sit there like that & spread their legs to sunbathe. Also, it would be pretty hard to do this to wild turtles on purpose.

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    Loolie
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Surely someone did this then sat back n took the pic?

    Creature Cargeaux
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    No turtles do this on purpose. I have pet turtles & they all do this in order to get closer to the heat source.

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    Laura Jackson
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Reminds me of the scene in Dirty Dancing when Johnny and Baby are practicing the lift in the water😂

    Bunzilla
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Those legs. It cracks me up when turtles do this while basking.

    GlamourGhoul
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Triple decker turtles are the next step in evolution obviously.

    Mama Penguin
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Here, we see a rendition of Swan Lake performed by the Testudines Ballet company.

    Creature Cargeaux
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    To sun bathe. My turtles do it too. They're competitive over light sources & basking platforms. So instead of knocking eachother off, they just climb on top. Lol.

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    Nola Dorothy
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Ah, so this was Dr Seuss's inspiration! And I thought he'd just made it up!

    Kitty 🇺🇦
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It looks like they’re doing the end lift move from Dirty Dancing.

    Sportsgal
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Does this work like rock cairn, and the turtles get 3 wishes?

    Pandasizing World Peace
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Practicing for their audition in hopes of getting to perform on "Turtles Have Talent".

    Karla Torres
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    So they saw the elephants in a movie...and now are trying their luck

    Vanessa Priest
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Oh my... I sure hope they can get undone. Makes me wonder how they got that way.

    Creature Cargeaux
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Dude...... this is natural behavior.... why is there always one of you that makes a cute & funny post into something negative...? Especially when you obviously have no idea what you're talking about? Lol. A quick google search would have shown you that all turtles do this to one another. I have pet turtles who do it. Turtles are surprisingly good climbers. So are tortoises. Lol. But they got that way on their own. They're competing for the basking platform. That's what they do. Stop looking for reasons to be outraged or for reasons to like... be upset about s**t.. not everything is negative & nefarious... & If you aren't sure if it's bad or not. Google. It.

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    Interestingly, scientists have shown rats exude just as much “happiness,” if not more, than other mammals.

    In the ’90s, neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp made a surprising discovery: rats loved being tickled. Turns out, when rats play, they emit high-frequency chirps undetectable by the human ear. Using special equipment to isolate the sounds, Panksepp discovered when he tickled the rats, their feverish chirps were akin to giggling.

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    #23

    Gallery Of 2 Images.
@eat_trsh

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    Graham Chapman
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    if those apples are fermented, there's gonna be one hell of a hangover..

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    #31

    Thesnuggleisrl

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    Susanne B
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Well if there is no box available, something else must suffice

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