Jane Goodall

Some of the most pioneering and highly important studies in animal behaviour in the wild have been carried out by the celebrated British ethologist and primatologist, Jane Goodall. She studied chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanganyika, East Africa, for nearly 45 years. On the basis of her intimate and carefully recorded observations of chimpanzee behaviour, she came to the conclusion that they have distinct personalities, minds and emotions. She showed that there exist affectionate bonds between chimpanzees, particularly between mothers and offspring and maternal siblings. These bonds often persist throughout life. Goodall pointed out that chimpanzees show emotions, which are strikingly similar to what we label happy, angry and depressed. Much of their non-verbal communication—facial expressions, gestures, hand movements—are similar to those of humans. She showed that, like human children, chimpanzee young ones experience and display joy and grief. Sometimes orphan chimps die of grief. In the course of her field study, Goodall observed an instance of adoption of a three-year-old orphan chimpanzee, even though he was not a close relative.

Goodall pointed out that chimpanzees show emotions, which are strikingly similar to what we label happy, angry and depressed. Much of their non-verbal communication—facial expressions, gestures, hand movements—are similar to those of humans. She showed that, like human children, chimpanzee young ones experience and display joy and grief. Sometimes orphan chimps die of grief.

In 1977, Jane Goodall founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation to provide ongoing support for field research on wild chimpanzees. The Institute, with 19 offices around the world, is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats.

Some ethologists have carried out systematic studies of the behaviour of elephants in the wild and have been struck by the amazing communication system that exists in them. Elephants send signals to each other that may travel as far as five miles. They communicate via sound waves that are below the threshold of human hearing. Large groups of female elephants use these infrasonic sounds to alert each other to danger and to give directions as they migrate from one place to another.

Elephants live in matriarchal groups in which social bonds are deep and enduring. When they reunite, they engage in a greeting celebration, flapping their ears and spinning about and emitting a sound described by ethologists as “greeting rumble.” Elephants experience and show grief when social bonds are snapped due to separation or death. They are known to show concern and compassion when they encounter another elephant who is in distress or when another elephant has died. Cynthia Moss, an expert on elephant behaviour, describes a moving scene of elephants grieving over the death of a member in her book Elephant Memories:

They stood around Tina’s carcass, touching it gently….Because it was rocky and the ground was wet, there was no loose dirt; but they tried to dig into it…. And when they managed to get a little earth up they sprinkled it over the body. Trista, Tia, and some of the others went off and broke branches from the surrounding low bushes and brought them back and placed them on the carcass….Then they stood vigil over her for most of the night and only as dawn was approaching did they reluctantly begin to walk away.

Wolves, like chimpanzees and elephants, not only experience joy and happiness, as well as other emotions, but also express them in their gestures and movements. When they reunite, they display their happiness by licking one another’s muzzles and wagging their tales loosely to and fro in a circle, whining and jumping about.

Louis Dorfman, an animal behaviourist at the International Exotic Feline Sanctuary in Boyd, Texas (USA), narrates that he lived with a Canadian timber wolf for 15 years. When her German playmate died, she sniffed him, then sat back and let out an extremely soulful and heart-rending howl.

Dias Fossey made a long-term study of the behaviour and communication system of gorillas in the wild. She found that gorillas have a vocabulary of nearly a hundred different sounds, gestures and facial expressions. Their vocalizations range from low guttural contact grunts to alarming barks and screams. Gorillas live in the most stable social groups of all the great apes and are known to experience and show a range of emotions, including happiness, grief and anger. A female gorilla at Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo died of cancer. The gorilla’s long-time mate was seen howling and banging his chest. He then picked up a piece of her favourite food—celery—and put it in her hand and tried to get her to wake up. Later, gorilla family members one by one filed into the room where her body lay, approaching her and gently sniffing the body (The Emotional Lives of Animals, by Marc Bekoff, 2007, p. 65).

Primates often display behaviour that has a striking resemblance with human behaviour. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania report that baboons generally move about in groups and form close and enduring bonds with one another. Furthermore, these bonds help them in coping with stressful situations. When baboons experience stress there is an increase in stress hormones known as glucocortoids, as in the case of humans.

Earlier, it was believed that spindle cells, which play an important role in processing emotions, are unique to humans and the great apes. It has recently been found that whales possess spindle cells in the same area of their brains as in human brains. This region in the brain is linked with social organization, empathy, intuition about the feelings of others, as well as rapid, gut reactions.

Earlier, it was believed that spindle cells, which play an important role in processing emotions, are unique to humans and the great apes. It has recently been found that whales possess spindle cells in the same area of their brains as in human brains. This region in the brain is linked with social organization, empathy, intuition about the feelings of others, as well as rapid, gut reactions.

Monkeys display great solidarity and emotional bonding, especially when one of them experiences distress or injury. A few years ago an interesting incident was reported from Tezpur in India. A baby monkey was accidentally hit by a running car. In a few moments a troop of about a hundred rhesus monkeys descended on the road, surrounded the injured infant and brought traffic to a grinding halt for quite a while. Finally, they left the scene carrying the injured baby with them.

Various species of birds and insects gauge directions and distances through the light from the sky, sun and moon. Desert ants (Cataglyphis fortis), for example, travel long distances over flat, sandy terrain in search of food. While they rely on the light from the sky for gauging direction and distance, they use an internal “pedometer” to measure exact marching distances.

Some birds use stars or moon as a marker in the sky to find their way home. The African dung beetle uses the pattern created by moonlight on tiny particles in the atmosphere as an orientation point and thereby travels in a straight line.

Until about a half century ago, it was believed that only humans possess the ability to make and use tools. In recent decades, ethologists and biologists have come across instances of rudimentary tool making behaviour in chimpanzees and gorillas and some species of birds. Jane Goodall made a pioneering contribution to this area of research. Chimpanzees in the wild are very fond of termites which breed in termite hills. They take a twig, remove its side branches and leaves and, using it as a stick, insert it into the termite hill. After a while they take out the stick, which is covered with termites. They then swipe it through their lips. A gorilla in the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International sanctuary in Congo can smash palm nuts between rocks—using the “hammer and anvil” technique--to extract oil.

Chimpanzees in the wild are very fond of termites which breed in termite hills. They take a twig, remove its side branches and leaves and, using it as a stick, insert it into the termite hill. After a while they take out the stick, which is covered with termites. They then swipe it through their lips.

The Egyptian vulture, which is very fond of ostrich eggs but is unable to break the hard egg shell with its beak or claws, picks up a stone in its claws and flies atop the eggs and then drops the stone on the eggs. When the eggs break due to the impact of the stone, the vulture comes down and eats up the contents.

Animal behaviour and medical research

Medical science acknowledges—at least indirectly—the existence of emotions in animals. Animals—especially mice and guinea pigs—are frequently used to develop and test drugs for human use in mental disorders. A recent study shows that mice can be a good model for sadness and introversion. When mice are bullied or dominated by other mice, they become withdrawn and depressed. These mice respond to such antidepressant drugs as Prozac. Similarly, rats which develop suicidal attraction to cats can be successfully treated with anti-psychotic drugs, such as Haloperidol.

A dog’s sense of smell is generally 10,000 to 100,000 times better and sharper than that of humans. In 1989, two English dermatologists put forth the idea that dogs may be able to smell cancer. An experiment to this effect was conducted at Amersham Hospital in England in which six pet dogs were used. People with bladder and prostrate cancer shed unique abnormal proteins in their urine. The trainers used urine from bladder cancer patients, from people sick with other diseases, and from healthy people so as to train the dogs for identifying the smell emanating from the urine of cancer patients. The dogs correctly identified 22 out of 54 cases of cancer, giving an average success rate of 41%.

It has been observed that chimpanzees are generally aware of the effects of plants, herbs and berries in their surrounding environment and instruct their young ones to avoid certain poisonous berries. Ethologists and biologists have observed that chimpanzees treat their ailments by adjusting their diet and by ingesting certain herbs. A team of scientists at the University of Makerere in Kampala recently discovered that a chimpanzee who was suffering from intestinal worms ingested the leaves of the plant Aneilema aequinoctiale in the morning and the bark of the tree Albizia grandibracteata in the evening. The tam later confirmed through in vitro testing that the herbs acted against parasites.

Another chimpanzee, who had been feverish and weak, was observed eating only the leaves of the plant Trichilia rubescens for a whole day. The plant’s molecules, later isolated by the scientists in a laboratory, were found to be effective against malaria.

Animal behaviour in Islamic perspective

Several species of animals, including cows, crow, wolves, camel, donkey, horse, elephant, honeybee, ants, spider, dog and hoopoe, are mentioned in various contexts in the Holy Quran. In some cases, they are mentioned as an illustration of the marvels of divine creation. In some instances, there is a figurative, symbolic reference to their behaviour. More importantly, some verses of the Quran refer to the existence of animal societies and of systems of communication in various species of animals. Thus the Quran says: “There is not an animal (that lives) on the earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but (constitute) societies or communities like yours” (6:38). The explicit reference in the Quran to systems of communication in animals occurs in the context of ants and the hoopoe (both in the story of Prophet Sulayman). The Quran says: “Then, when they reached the valley of the ants, an ant said: Ants! Enter your dwellings lest Sulayman and his troops trample upon you unwittingly” (27:18). The bird Hud-hud (hoopoe) is mentioned twice in Surah al-Naml in the Holy Quran (27:20-22). The Quran says: “And he (Prophet Sulayman) sought among the birds and said: “How is it that I see not the hoopoe, or is he among the absent?” (27:20). “But the hoopoe tarried not far: he compassed (territory) which thou hast not compassed and I have come to thee from Saba with tidings true (27:22). Prophet Sulayman was aware of the communication system in animals, birds and insects.

More importantly, some verses of the Quran refer to the existence of animal societies and of systems of communication in various species of animals.

Kindness and compassion towards animals

Aware that animals have been created by God and as such deserve to be treated with kindness and compassion, the Prophet emphasized that treating animals with kindness pleases God and causing distress or injury to them results in His displeasure. Once he happened to see a donkey who had been branded with hot iron and was bleeding from its nose. He was distressed to see the poor animal and said, “Accursed be he who has branded this innocent animal.” The Prophet forbade playful games involving animals like cock fighting and bull fighting. A Companion once visited the Prophet with the young one of a bird in his hand. When the Prophet inquired about it, the Companion replied, “While I was passing by a bush, I heard the sound of some young birds. When their mother saw me taking them away she began encircling over me.” The Prophet expressed his displeasure and told him, “You have caused distress to the mother by taking her young ones away. Go and keep them back in the bush.”

The Prophet once saw a camel whose stomach had been flattened due to hunger. He sent for the camel’s owner and told him to fear God in respect of animals and to feed them properly. One day the Prophet saw a man riding his camel, which was laden with a heavy burden and looked sick. The man was continuously whipping the poor animal so as to make him walk faster. The Prophet told him, “Have pity on your animals. The camel looks weak and sick. Don’t torture it.”

The Prophet once saw a camel whose stomach had been flattened due to hunger. He sent for the camel’s owner and told him to fear God in respect of animals and to feed them properly. One day the Prophet saw a man riding his camel, which was laden with a heavy burden and looked sick. The man was continuously whipping the poor animal so as to make him walk faster. The Prophet told him, “Have pity on your animals. The camel looks weak and sick. Don’t torture it."

The Prophet once narrated the story of a traveller to his companions. The traveller, who had covered a long, arduous journey, was overcome with thirst. He happened to spot a well and stepped into it and quenched his thirst. When he came up, he saw a dog who was wagging his tongue and tail because of extreme thirst. He again climbed down into the well and filled his socks with water and gave it to the dog to drink. God was highly pleased with his compassion and kindness to the dog and forgave all his sins.

The Prophet narrated another story of a heartless woman who lived in earlier times. She had kept a pet cat but was so cruel that she would always keep it tied up and would not give her anything to eat. Ultimately the cat died. God was so displeased with the woman that He sent her to hell.

Once the Prophet was on a journey along with some of his companions. He halted at some place on the way to rest. He went away for a while and when he came back he saw that the companions had lit a kitchen fire close to an anthill. He told them to immediately put out the fire so that the ants may not be harmed. He then asked them to shift the fireplace elsewhere. One day a camel came running towards the Prophet and knelt down before him. The camel’s eyes were filled with tears. The Prophet sent for the owner of the camel and, when he arrived, asked him why the animal was looking sick and distressed. The man replied that the camel used to carry heavy water bags, which were used for watering his garden. Now that the camel had become old and weak and was unable to carry the water bags, he had decided to kill the animal and distribute its meat among relatives and friends. The Prophet was distressed to hear this and asked the camel’s owner to either sell it to him or give him as a gift. He agreed to gift the camel to the Prophet, who sent it to the animal shed attached to the state treasury where it would be well looked after.