Do Animals Hold Grudges?

Over the years we at Giz Asks have explored numerous aspects of animal behavior and psychology.

And such.

Vladimir Dinets Assistant Professor, Kean University of Zoology, research focuses on animal behaviorYes, animals take revenge.

Macaques also do this, albeit indirectly: if they can’t attack the attacker because they are much stronger, they will instead injure someone weaker, sometimes a relative of the attacker.

There are also many cases of injured animals chasing or ambushing their predators when it would be more plausible for these animals to flee or hide.

Revenge in humans is an irrational manifestation of our innate desire for justice, which is often observed in many other primates and has evolved to achieve social cooperation.

Some animals that are known for their revenge attacks on predators are also highly social (e.g. elephants), but others are not (bears, tigers etc), so I don’t have a good explanation for their behavior “Macaques do that too”, although not directly: It’s much stronger to the attacker. If they cannot attack for the sake of it, they will instead harm a weaker person, sometimes a relative of the attacker.” Malini Suchak

Associate Professor, Animal Behavior, Ecology and Conservation, Canisius College I have no doubt that many animals are in reciprocity in what we usually think of as “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”. Reciprocity can also extend to negative behavior, for example, if someone does bad cooperation, you may refuse to cooperate with them in the future.

The reciprocity of negative actions is not exactly the same thing as revenge, which for me is a component of moral justification.

While it may seem obvious that other species have their own moral codes and systems (for example, capuchins react negatively to unjust situations), the idea of ​​taking revenge on other species worries me because it assumes that their moral systems are the same as ours. the same things we do, right or wrong.

I often hear people say things like, “I went on vacation and my cat’s revenge pissed on my bed,” implying that the cat knew it was wrong to pee on the bed but did it anyway to punish them for leaving them.

If this action is seen as revenge, the person may punish or get angry with their cat and it probably won’t change anything the next time they go on vacation.

If seen as stress, they can act to relieve stress the next time they go – a win/win for human and cat.

I think that assuming that their treatment of other animals constitutes revenge may be detrimental to the way we actually treat them when they look at the situation very differently. has a moral justification component.

While it may seem obvious that other species have their own moral codes and systems (for example, capuchins react negatively to unjust situations), the idea of ​​taking revenge on other species worries me because it assumes that their moral systems are the same as ours. I study non-human primates, specifically a species called ponytail macaques.

They live in large social groups and are matrilineal – an older mother will have children, and her children will have children.

When one of these families gets into a fight with another family, almost all family members will join in and help out.

It can be quite vicious at times.

On a minor level, if someone from family A attacks someone from family B, that member of family B will likely go after someone from family A later on – chase them, bite them, hit them.

When I tried this, sometimes it was happening later.

Animal A hits animal B, and then animal B chases after animal A’s offspring.

This behavior has also been found in other macaque species—another author studied it in Japanese macaques. , almost all family members will participate and help. ”Stephanie Poindexter

Assistant Professor, Anthropology, SUNY Buffalo, whose research focuses on primate behavioral ecology, among other things, I study primates, and my answer would be: yes, more or less.

Obviously we cannot know their intentions because we cannot ask them what they are planning to do or why they are doing it.

However, in studies of captive primates in social groups in zoos, we have found that when an individual is attacked in some way, they are more likely to attack a relative of the aggressor.

(This phenomenon has also been seen in spotted hyenas.) For the most part, these acts of “revenge” occur shortly after the attack – I’ve never seen anything a primate spends a long time getting revenge on its enemies. .

The nature of living in these hierarchies or groups with a dominant male is fear.

If you don’t behave as expected, this will have repercussions.

There are groups of great apes consisting of one male and more than one female.

In these groups, you may see aggressive behavior towards females straying during a conflict or major fight with another group, these females can be punished because they didn’t maintain group integrity – they didn’t act or behave in the right pattern. in another way that the dominant male does not like.

The goal here is to maintain the group and power. “Obviously we cannot know their intentions because we cannot ask them what they are planning to do or why they are doing it.

However, in studies of captive primates in social groups in zoos, we have found that when an individual is attacked in some way, they are more likely to attack a relative of the aggressor. does he ask?