Unlikely Friendships - Jennifer S. Holland [1]
The Macaque and the Dove
The Macaque and the Kitten
The Mare and the Fawn
The Monkeys and the Capybaras
The Mouflon and the Eland
The Nearsighted Deer and the Poodle
The Orangutan and the Kitten
The Orangutan Babies and the Tiger Cubs
The Owl and the Spaniel
The Owlet and the Greyhound
The Papillon and the Squirrel
The Photographer and the Leopard Seal
The Pit Bull, the Siamese Cat, and the Chicks
The Potbellied Piglet and the Rhodesian Ridgeback
The Rabbit and the Guinea Pig
The Rat and the Cat
The Red Pandas and the Mothering Mutt
The Rhinoceros, the Warthog, and the Hyena
The Rottweiler and the Wolf Pup
The Salty Dog and the Dolphins
The Seeing-Eye Cat and the Blind Mutt
The Sled Dog and the Polar Bear
The Snake and the Hamster
The Tortoise and the Hippo
The White Rhino and the Billy Goat
The Zebra and the Gazelle
AFTERWORD
THE AUTHOR, THE SWEETLIPS, AND THE PUFFER FISH
REFERENCES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A lion cub and a French bulldog share a drink together at Twycross Zoo in the U.K.
Introduction
MY HUSBAND JOHN’S FIRST BEST FRIEND WAS A RACCOON. When a stray cat dropped the tiny fur ball into a neigh-bor’s boot, ten-year-old John became the creature’s caretaker, cupping it in the palms of his hands, dripping milk into its mouth with an eyedropper, and tucking it into a blanketed box at night, with a ticking clock to mimic a mother’s heartbeat. John named the animal Bandit, and the raccoon grew up following him every-where—as he left for school, to the dinner table, even into the shower. Bandit sat on John’s shoulder, shirt collar in its tiny grip and face into the wind, as the pair whizzed down the street on John’s bike. And the raccoon slept curled up on John’s pillow, cooing its animal dreams softly in the child’s ear. No word but friendship could describe the bond shared by boy and raccoon.
It isn’t unusual for human beings to connect with other animals. Well over half of all U.S. households keep pets, spending more than $40 billion a year on their welfare. Studies show that encounters with pets can lower blood pressure, ease depression, and soothe the mental and physical pain of growing old—just a few of the countless ways animals enrich our lives.
Less common than a human–pet connection, and at first glance more surprising, is a bond between members of two different nonhuman species: a dog and a donkey, a cat and a bird, a sheep and an elephant. The phenomenon is most often reported in captive animals, in part because we simply catch them in the act more often. But it’s also because, notes biologist and primate specialist Barbara King of the College of William & Mary, that’s where constraints are relaxed, where the animals aren’t fighting for their basic needs—which allows their emotional energy to flow elsewhere. Of course, there are cases of cross-species bonds in the wild, as well. “Most important,” King says, “we know animals, under whatever circumstances, have that capacity.”
Not all scientists are comfortable using a term like friendship when referring to nurturing or protective animal relations. For many years, “animals were to be described as machines, and students of animal behavior were to develop a terminology devoid of human connotations,” wrote primatologist Frans de Waal in The Age of Empathy. He himself has been criticized for attributing human traits to animals by biologists who believe “anthropomorphic anecdotes have no place in science.”
Even those less averse to associating people-based ideas with nonpeople say we don’t know how much awareness exists between “friends” regarding their behavior. But behaviorists argue that declaring that there is none at all leans too far the other way. The famed primatologist Jane Goodall, who has described her own relationship with wild chimpanzees as friendships, said in a recent interview with me for National Geographic, “You cannot share your life in any meaningful way with an animal and not realize they have different personalities. Are their capabilities and emotions similar to ours? Absolutely.”
On a Darwinian note,