Pets

A video story that was popular a couple of years ago, followed by some pithy commentary text that made me want to bring this up again.



Big cat expert John Williamson said,

It is not all that uncommon for lions (and other species), male and female, to adopt other animals as "pets" or companions with which they interact to the benefit of both.

Social bonding for purposes other than "natural" can be seen across a wide range of species. Witness humans and their mutually content animal companions.

You might want to add socialization to any list of "innate" behaviors, the expression of which can take on a wide variety of forms depending on individual animals and their environmental constraints. "Wild" behavior only reflects a narrow range of expressions under certain conditions. There is very little "innate" about it.

Being alive is innate, the possibilities thereafter take on an awesome, wonderful complexity within life's web...

Every living thing...

Each of these tiny insects is, by definition, an animated being,
a being with an anima, a soul . . .a thing of marvelous beauty
expressing some aspect of the divine.

-- Joanne Elizabeth Lauck,
The Voice of the Infinite in the Small