How Other Creatures Can Teach Us Gratitude

Lucy Pickett

The animal kingdom also has ways to show thankfulness, it’s not just an emotion reserved for humans.

It’s proven that primates and cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises) have emotional awareness. Some researchers have found evidence of social bonding behaviours, showing complex social structures.

Examples of animal gratitude witnessed include:

• A lioness (freed from a trap) later brought her cubs, to visit the person who rescued her.
• A dolphin trapped in fishing net, approached a diver who quickly freed the gentle creature. Instead of swimming away immediately, the dolphin lingered, circling the diver as a kind of ‘thank you dance’ beneath the waves.
• A herd of elephants knew how to thank the humans, who saved one of their calves. They erupted into a ‘chorus of woos’ with raised trunks.
• An octopus in Egypt was rescued from sand, by some holidaymakers. The next day they returned, and the same octopus followed them for hours along the beach waves!
• This baby seal was rescued by South Africans, who caught it to release it from fishing net. Usually they would run away, but the seal stopped for a few seconds to look back, as if to say thank you.