Should you meet a turtle basking on a log in the sun, you might reasonably conclude that the turtle is in a good mood.
Granted, there has been little scientific evidence that reptiles experience such emotional richness – until now, at least.
Researchers in England identified what they describe as “mood states” – emotional experiences that are more than momentary – in red-footed tortoises by administering cleverly designed tests that use responses to ambiguity as windows into the psyche.
The results of the study, published in the journal Animal Cognition, could apply to many more reptiles and have profound implications for how people treat them.
“There was an acceptance that reptiles could do these short-term emotions,” said Oliver Burman, who studies animal behaviour at the University of Lincoln in England and is an author of the paper.
“They could respond to positive things and unpleasant things. But the long-term mood states are really important.” As for why it took so long to show this in reptiles, Burman said, “maybe we just haven’t asked them correctly.”
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