Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Do Reptiles have emotions?

  • Yes

    Votes: 61 55.0%
  • No

    Votes: 35 31.5%
  • I'm not sure

    Votes: 15 13.5%

  • Total voters
    111
  • Poll closed .
Status
Not open for further replies.
^^ lovely reply, these animals are truly beautiful and can be misunderstood by people.. My tigers each have their own personalities, they each have their own routines, one of my female tigers was given to me as a rescue.. she was very underweight and nearly dead.. this snake was wild caught and otherwise very aggressive, you couldnt get near the enclosure without her rearing up and striking/hissing after she gained health and weight she showed no aggression toward me at all, yet anyone else she would hood, hiss and strike.. Whatever anyone else thinks, this snake showed something that day...
 
But one Burmese wants to kiss women
Maybe not strange as its a young male but most of our customers do tend to get a bit nervous when he goes there
Every time a woman wants to hold it we have to explain that its not going to bite but will probably want to kiss her
It does try for a kiss either directly on on very close to the lips in 80% of cases of women holding it
Also kisses me but no other males

longqi, where do you come up with this stuff? Honestly..? Since when do snakes 'kiss' anything? They don't even kiss their own species...

Let this thread die already...
 
Sam
All I can say is bring your gf to play with it
this particular snake touches lips to lips on far too many occasions for it to be nothing
I dont know what else to call it other than kissing???
If you have any suggestions please let me know

Maybe sometime check out facebook [email protected]
Might be worth a gander
 
Sam
All I can say is bring your gf to play with it
this particular snake touches lips to lips on far too many occasions for it to be nothing
I dont know what else to call it other than kissing???

facepalm.jpg


But being fair, I will allow you to test your theory with this here snake by kissing it on the lips:
226710_1902308912356_1080709962_2126128_8074630_n.jpg
 
Last edited:
I am new to keeping reptiles, but after only a week or so of having our 2 central bearded dragons at home with us I can answer unequivocally yes. Yes I do think reptiles have emotions. Our female Coco is definitley the boss and as my 8 year-old son calls her 'the heater hog'. She gets herself right under the heatlamp and won't let the male anywhere near it. I am aware that this is probably a dominance thing, but what female doesn't like to be toasty warm on a cold night? Spike the little male is definitley the cheekier of the pair and loves being carried around inside your jumper. I almost accidently took him shopping with me the other day because I forgot he was in there, oops :). They definitley have distinct characters, so one could argue that if reptiles don't have emotions, wouldn't they all have the same personalities?
 
facepalm.jpg


But being fair, I will allow you to test your theory with this here snake by kissing it on the lips:
226710_1902308912356_1080709962_2126128_8074630_n.jpg

Just to be fair about this I will raise your supposedly savage snake with another one that probably trumps yours
This albino cobra is milked after the show to demonstrate that it has not been tampered with in any way
Usually it is Aga and Yanz, a couple, who do this every single day, but in this shot it was just a stranger picked from the crowd
Once again I am NOT saying that this proves emotions

yanz and aja.jpg
 
Hey Peter,
I think that you are onto something here.
The people in the show obviously have no emotions, that is for fear anyway, & the snake obviously has emotions of friendliness towards the fools.

Cheers
Ian

Just to be fair about this I will raise your supposedly savage snake with another one that probably trumps yours
This albino cobra is milked after the show to demonstrate that it has not been tampered with in any way
Usually it is Aga and Yanz, a couple, who do this every single day, but in this shot it was just a stranger picked from the crowd
Once again I am NOT saying that this proves emotions

View attachment 201891
 
that cobra is in a defensive position? and don't many of those shows dope their snakes up with opium? (they did at my last trip lol)
 
can any one state that they believe their pets have no personality? as in this snake has a disposition to be snappy and aggro, or this one is calm and placid? i find it difficult to believe you can have a personality with out emotion and from a reading on personalities the attributes that define a personality are themselves defined by the emotions from actions taken by an individual.

so do those of you that claim your pets have no emotion also claim they have no personality?
 
Ian
By the amount of sweat and 'adrenalin come down' involved after a show I think they both know what fear is
But they both do love their snakes even though both have been bitten

D3pro
A few years ago that was very true
That is if they didnt have their mouths taped up or wired shut
But believe me when you see Aja tip out about 20 cobras into the floor of the stage and then literally dance with them as they wriggle into position for her part of the show, you can see very quickly that these are just active strong snakes much like our RBBs
Not as fast as a Taipan by any means
But a lot faster than any carpet
I have done this once only to prove to myself I could do it but wont do it again

Yanz gets his favourite cobra to place its mouth inside his mouth and gently holds it there with his teeth while he walks around the stage
Aja reaches into boxes full of Boiga Dendrophila while blindfolded, and lifts them out a few at a time etc etc etc

Is that cobra in a defensive position??
In the wild they often raise up like that just to look around
Usually in attack position they also coil more to get more impetus into the strike

As stated before these do not prove emotions but possibly offer a slightly different perspective???
 
can any one state that they believe their pets have no personality? as in this snake has a disposition to be snappy and aggro, or this one is calm and placid? i find it difficult to believe you can have a personality with out emotion and from a reading on personalities the attributes that define a personality are themselves defined by the emotions from actions taken by an individual.

so do those of you that claim your pets have no emotion also claim they have no personality?

Well Tristan this is the big problem with sorting out personalaity,emotions,love etc.
I have many snakes that i accept are different or have different traits or how they have been raised or educated, but it is hard for me to recognise that they have a personality. DOES the personality come from what I do with them to make them that way or do they show feelings in a different way.
Sure I guess you look at it from a perspective that we have been taught or raised with that this is what we have been taught to persieve as personalty. IS IT? or are just just responding to instict or what they have been taught or led that way????

Cheers
 
Just to be fair about this I will raise your supposedly savage snake with another one that probably trumps yours
This albino cobra is milked after the show to demonstrate that it has not been tampered with in any way
Usually it is Aga and Yanz, a couple, who do this every single day, but in this shot it was just a stranger picked from the crowd
Once again I am NOT saying that this proves emotions

View attachment 201891


i'll raise you that...for this
Psychrolutes%20marcidus.jpg

^^that's scarier
 
Ugh I have catching up to do.

I was watching YouTube videos where alligators were trained to lie down and stay. The guy at the zoo was on the mic, and every time he counted and got to "three" the alligator would drop on it's belly and lie still.

Longqi, that kissing photo is insane. That is a big cobra!!!
 
So now alligators have emotions, I suppose that they are reptiles to.
Our Crocodiles love people(indigenous & american tourists) But I did not know that they were that emotional about what they ate.
The guy on the mic did not offer his advice on how the alligators had been trained to this to receive food rewards????
 
Ian
I will agree with you on this one
Never met a croc or gator that I felt I could trust

Now I wonder if that guy who used to scrub his big rescued gator it its pond still has both his arms
Think he was from Puerto Rica
 
I think yes. Snakes are like any other animals, they feel pain, hunger and a range of emotions.
 
can any one state that they believe their pets have no personality? as in this snake has a disposition to be snappy and aggro, or this one is calm and placid? i find it difficult to believe you can have a personality with out emotion and from a reading on personalities the attributes that define a personality are themselves defined by the emotions from actions taken by an individual.

so do those of you that claim your pets have no emotion also claim they have no personality?

Short answer. Yes. What a ridiculously human concept, reptiles have personality. You see what you want to see. You look for what you want to find. You interpret programmed response behaviours using human concepts such as personality and emotions, really. I'll just go and grab one of my dragons out of their enclosure and give it a kiss. If it doesn't bite me I will declare to all on this forum it is returning my kiss and that as a consequence it loves me. Possible proof that reptiles have emotions and personality. If it bites me or tries to escape I will find a human concept to explain that away as well. Could not possibly be a normal behaviour, could it? Of course not. I know my dragon loves me.

What some of you need to understand is that there are thousands of researchers all over the world in hundreds of universities, institutes and other research facilities right now as I write this, conducting thousands of experiments with all kinds of different species trying to prove that animals other then humans have emotions. This research has been going on for decades if not even longer. Guess what, to this very day NO DEFINITIVE PROOF that any animal, has emotions let alone the capacity for abstract thought.

Sure there are several researchers who "claim" they have the definitve proof. Then they turn around and publish their research result in a manner that in many cases is ambiguous in its arguement, very often incorporating skewed data and usually always with a closing comment for more research to be undertaken before a definitve conclusion can be drawn. You only have to go to the field of taxonomy for examples of how this process works. Ah, but I digress.

I myself read a recent study involving chimpanzees conducted by Japanese researchers at a Japanese facility where the chimps were given joystick controllers and then presented with problems they needed to solve using the josticks. As a result of their research these scientists proudly proclaimed they had proof positive that their chimps were using abstract thought to problem solve. Why then has this research not been heralded as ground breaking and lauded throughout the world.

Simple answer, because the experiments cannot demonstrate a freedom of bias in all matters needed to demonstrate such a profound conclusion as abstract consciousness in an animal. Even my untrained but inquiring mind could find questions that were not satisfactorily addressed. I will not go into the problems with the experiments, but the very existence of even one problem that can bias an outcome makes any conclusion questionable at best and depending on the bias, irrelevant or worthless at worst.

What I find interesting about all this research is the amount of it being conducted to try and find evidence of what more then two thirds of people in this thread already believe to be the case (and a percentage of that number again, claim is definately the case), that animals have emotions and personalities. Interesting in that I am unaware of and there appears to be nowhere near the same amount of energy, effort or research going into proving that animals are behaviourial in responses to stimuli and do not have the capacity for abstract thought. I have no doubt there is some being done or been done but the bulk of what is happening is focussed on proving that animals do have emotions. No doubt what I said earlier applies even in the case of researchers. "You look for what you want to find".

Longqi, you really have thrown a cat in amongst the pigeons by starting this little debate. I am still trying to work out whether you are sitting back, tongue in cheek, having a giggle stirring the pot or you are actually fair dinkum with some of the comments you have posted. Every single arguement I have seen presented by every single person who has posted an example of a behaviour they have witnessed from one of their animals or some other animal elsewhere, I could reasonably argue demonstrates nothing more then a behaviourial response.

The problem for me is the fervour and conviction that comes through with some of the topic posters in the affirmative on this subject is, that it is almost religous in its zeal. I have sat out of this debate for days because of it. You cannot argue with believers and that is the problem with this debate. Too many people are basing there opinions on what they want to see and believe. It appears everybody has a point of view on this subject hence the small number in the poll who have declared that they do not know. Some opinions are well balanced, some are well researched, some are educated, some are emotional, some are silly to others and to others they are not. I guess if I can be pragmatic about this discussion the right response from all of us on this subject is the one chosen by the fewest of us. I agree with your comment and surprise earlier in the topic when you pointed this out. But then that in itself says something about us as humans.

Please don't get me wrong her. Nothing would give me greater pleasure then to know that when I hold my staffy's head in my 2 hands and look into her eyes and tell her how much I love her, that I could actually know, rather then feel that she is giving me back the same love with the look in her eyes towards me. But I know that right at that point in time there is no scientific evidence that she does anything other then just stay still and look back into my eyes devoid of any emotion. What she will be doing is looking for signs in my demeanor towards her (through facial expression or other means) of how the current situation will likely pan out for her. If I smile she will relax. If I start laughing and speaking excitedly to her she will start to wag her tail and get excited. If a frown comes on my face she may try to look away. If I give off a gutteral growl with she will most likely try to move away. I think you follow my thought process. But hey that does not mean that I don't "feel" her love. I feel it because that is what I want to feel.
 
Longirostris
The debate was started as just a simple question that I thought might get some interesting replies
The way it kept going was to a far greater extent than I would ever have imagined
As I said at the start I was simply Devils Advocate
I cannot stress enough how impressed I have been by some of the points brought forward by both sides
Hopefully now more people may be less certain of their previously 'fixed' position

It would be interesting to do the poll again now
Maybe the "I'm not sure' vote would increase by a pretty decent percentage???
 
longirostris
Well said & I could not agree more.

I think most have been letting their emotions tell them what they want to think.

Cheers
Ian
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top