Animals that like us

[CheeseDonkey]

The other day, I was looking at the bird feeder and noticed a slew of animals intermingling without being afraid of each other. Grackles were next to chickadees and there was even a squirrel in there at one point.

That got me wondering - are there any animals that naturally "like" or "tolerate" humans, as those birds and squirrels tolerated each other? I'm talking about animals that, if I walked into the middle of a big group of them, they wouldn't all run away or try to eat me.

I was considering cats and dogs, but we train them to like us.

[Mangetout]

Bedbugs love us.

Some animals appear to be friendly and tolerant of humans (I'm thinking of the European Robin in particular), but in fact they're aggressively asserting their territory.

[GusNSpot]

Like?

Tolerate Maybe.

Cows
Dolphins
Many fish schools
Marmots
Chipmunks
Etc.

[CheeseDonkey]

I was thinking cows, but do they tolerate us by nature, or is it because they're trained to tolerate us, by our being around them from the time they are born?

[ftg]

A year ago I had a bird-friend.

I first noticed it when I was shoveling the driveway after a rare snowfall. It was just there, all around the whole time. It especially liked it when I was near something it could perch on like the mailbox. It was hoping I would expose some soil with some bugs for it it eat. (The snow of course makes things hard on birds.) It clearly didn't understand the concept of concrete != soil.

It wouldn't mind if I got less than 2 feet from it.

Then I saw it regularly even in normal weather. If I was turning over the compost pile it couldn't get close enough to me. If I held a rake up, it'd even perch on the tip of the handle. Sometimes I'd have to be careful and let it pick thru things before I started turning again.

It was a regular most times when I was outside for several months. It pretty much didn't care what I was doing, pruning, raking, whatever, it just liked to be right there.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find it in my bird book. (Surprisingly common.) Sort of like a bunting.

[Ludovic]

There's the Greater Honeyguide, perhaps the only wild species known to specifically seek out humans to communicate with. (They guide humans to beehives in order to eat the remains after the humans harvest the hive.)

[hibernicus]

Originally Posted by ftg

A year ago I had a bird-friend.

I first noticed it when I was shoveling the driveway after a rare snowfall. It was just there, all around the whole time. It especially liked it when I was near something it could perch on like the mailbox. It was hoping I would expose some soil with some bugs for it it eat. (The snow of course makes things hard on birds.) It clearly didn't understand the concept of concrete != soil.

It wouldn't mind if I got less than 2 feet from it.

Then I saw it regularly even in normal weather. If I was turning over the compost pile it couldn't get close enough to me. If I held a rake up, it'd even perch on the tip of the handle. Sometimes I'd have to be careful and let it pick thru things before I started turning again.

It was a regular most times when I was outside for several months. It pretty much didn't care what I was doing, pruning, raking, whatever, it just liked to be right there.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find it in my bird book. (Surprisingly common.) Sort of like a bunting.

That behaviour is fairly typical of the European robin. I remember one actually sitting on my shoulder while I was digging.

[njtt]

Originally Posted by CheeseDonkey

I was considering cats and dogs, but we train them to like us.

Nonsense, they are bred to like us, or more likely in these two cases, they naturally selected themselves to like us. The proto-dogs and cats that hung around humans did better (from human waste food, or from the mice and rats that hung around people's granaries) than their conspecifics who did not.

[CheeseDonkey]

I wouldn't call it nonsense. If you take 20 kittens, force them into the wild where they don't have human interaction, and then a human walks into their area, they'll probably all run away or attack the intruder.

[BubbaDog]

Animal Planet Special - When Kittens Attack

[Floater]

Cats don't really like us, they tolerate us, though, because we can do things that they can't, like open doors and cans of cat food.

[Mithras]

Originally Posted by CheeseDonkey

I wouldn't call it nonsense. If you take 20 kittens, force them into the wild where they don't have human interaction, and then a human walks into their area, they'll probably all run away or attack the intruder.

But if you were to take a bunch of birds and raise them in an environment where they've never seen a squirrel, how would their first encounter with one go? I don't know specifically the answer to that, but you can't look at that group and ignore their past experiences either.

[PapSett]

While this isn't really an answer, it brings up something in my mind that amazes me. Animals that have been horribly abused in their lives often (not always, but much more commonly than I would expect) have this amazing capacity for forgiveness and trust. I volunteer at a horse rescue and see it every day. Horses who have been starved, beaten, neglected, who come into our barn half dead and terrified, will come around with patience and love. It's the same with dogs. The last rescue transport I drove was a sweet English Setter boy named Charlie, about half the weight he shoud have been and so afraid he didn't walk, he crawled on his belly. He was delivered to his foster home, who became his forever home in less than a week. The pictures of Charlie now show a happy, smiling boy full of life & love.

I'll say it again. Animals amaze me.

[Alessan]

I was walking home form the doctor today when I saw a large ginger cat sitting on a low wall on Balfour Street. We looked at each other for a few seconds, then I carefully reached over and scratched him behind the ear; he responded with a polite purr. We then said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. This cat - which I had never seen before in my life - had no collar and had probably never been indoors in his life, but he still got along just fine with humans.

[njtt]

Originally Posted by CheeseDonkey

I wouldn't call it nonsense. If you take 20 kittens, force them into the wild where they don't have human interaction, and then a human walks into their area, they'll probably all run away or attack the intruder.

Cite?

Animals in environments where they have no experience of humans or large predators usually shown no particular fear of humans, no more than they would of any other large thing galumphing through their world.

And have a look at this link. Sure, we train domesticated animals, but it is not the training that makes them domesticated. Feral cats and dogs are still domestic cats and dogs, and can generally readily be tamed again, wildcats and wolves, not so much.

[Lukeinva]

Originally Posted by Mangetout

Bedbugs love us.

So do their close relatives the horse fly and the mosquito.

[heathen earthling]

If I recall correctly, some animals that were hunted to extinction were said to tolerate us walking up to them. Too bad for them.

[jsgoddess]

I think dodos are gone because they didn't fear humans.

And allegedly gerbils in the wilds of the Gobi desert just let people walk up to them and pick them up. This seems like a very stupid idea for gerbils.

[Alessan]

Or maybe they think that death is preferable to living in the wilds of the Gobi desert. I would.

[Jophiel]

I seem to recall the Galapagos fauna being tolerant/unconcerned by humans. Especially the tortoises and iguanas.

[John DiFool]

Originally Posted by PapSett

While this isn't really an answer, it brings up something in my mind that amazes me. Animals that have been horribly abused in their lives often (not always, but much more commonly than I would expect) have this amazing capacity for forgiveness and trust. I volunteer at a horse rescue and see it every day. Horses who have been starved, beaten, neglected, who come into our barn half dead and terrified, will come around with patience and love. It's the same with dogs. The last rescue transport I drove was a sweet English Setter boy named Charlie, about half the weight he shoud have been and so afraid he didn't walk, he crawled on his belly. He was delivered to his foster home, who became his forever home in less than a week. The pictures of Charlie now show a happy, smiling boy full of life & love.

I'll say it again. Animals amaze me.

Unlike us, they don't get attached to their pain, letting it continually fester without ever allowing it to heal. I sincerely believe that many people want to stay mired in their various psychological wounds (having once been one myself). We could learn a lot from these creatures.

[Alessan]

It's possible. Or maybe they're just stupid.

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by jsgoddess

And allegedly gerbils in the wilds of the Gobi desert just let people walk up to them and pick them up. This seems like a very stupid idea for gerbils.

That seems unlikely - it's hard enough to get even the domestic ones to be hand-tame.

[Sailboat]

The Syrian hamster was first bred (from one litter retrieved from the wild) as a research animal, but lab workers noticed how well Syrian hamster got along with humans and decided to try them as pets. Does that count?

We have had several hamsters and, despite the fact that we don't "train" them, they generally accept human handling placidly and without struggle, even when they're ill or in pain (at least in my experience).

[jayjay]

Originally Posted by Lukeinva

So do their close relatives the horse fly and the mosquito.

Not terribly close relatives...while flies and mosquitoes are both in the order Diptera, bedbugs are in the order Hemiptera, so quite a few branches apart on the Insecta family tree.

[Sailboat]

Originally Posted by Mangetout

Bedbugs love us.

Yeah, but they suck.

[Maastricht]

Some animals have taken in abandoned babies and raised them to be "feral children". By that count, wolves, (half)wild dogs and monkeys liked a baby enough to go to considerable trouble for them.

[t-bonham@scc.net]

Originally Posted by PapSett

While this isn't really an answer, it brings up something in my mind that amazes me. Animals that have been horribly abused in their lives often (not always, but much more commonly than I would expect) have this amazing capacity for forgiveness and trust. I volunteer at a horse rescue and see it every day. Horses who have been starved, beaten, neglected, who come into our barn half dead and terrified, will come around with patience and love.

Sometimes they remember, and take longer.

We had a rescued abused horse at our farm, who was deathly afraid of men. But she was fine with girls or women.

After a while, for men who were around the farm all the time, she came to recognize them and was just wary, rather than terrified of them. And eventually, she seemed to accept men that she recognized. But male strangers always made her nervous.

She eventually went to a widowed woman with 3 daughters. Last I heard, they were all getting along fine. But all the girls were too young for boyfriends or fiancees then.

[Smeghead]

Darwin wrote an account of his experiences with the marine iguanas in the Galapogos. They were completely unafraid of him, because they had never experienced land predators. In fact, they associated land with safety because all the danger they ever encountered was in the ocean. Darwin tested this instinct by picking up an iguana and throwing it in the ocean. The iguana realized something odd was going on, and immediately swam back to shore, where Darwin threw it back in the ocean. This repeated itself over and over and over again, and the iguana never did figure out that it was safer in the water.

The point being that "fear" and "tolerance" of humans is at least partially learned. Most animals on continental land have evolved around predators and have developed a healthy fear of unknown large animals like us.

[mutantmoose]

I think Canada Geese are a good example of what the OP is thinking of. A completely wild animal that you can just walk right up to. I've walked through a big flock of them pecking at the ground and stood in the middle and they took no notice of me at all, just carried on pecking.

[md2000]

Originally Posted by Smeghead

Darwin wrote an account of his experiences with the marine iguanas in the Galapogos. They were completely unafraid of him, because they had never experienced land predators. In fact, they associated land with safety because all the danger they ever encountered was in the ocean. Darwin tested this instinct by picking up an iguana and throwing it in the ocean. The iguana realized something odd was going on, and immediately swam back to shore, where Darwin threw it back in the ocean. This repeated itself over and over and over again, and the iguana never did figure out that it was safer in the water.

The point being that "fear" and "tolerance" of humans is at least partially learned. Most animals on continental land have evolved around predators and have developed a healthy fear of unknown large animals like us.

I think it was Darwin or a fellow visitor who wrote about the birds landing on a crewman's arm and trying to drink from the jug when he was pouring a glass of water. Their"skittish" gene had turned off. Someone else described a child a decade or so later, with a branch, collecting dinner by whacking birds that approached a watering hole. By that time they needed a 4 foot stick.

Apparently after about 2 decades of this treatment the birds were as skittish as the ones on the mainland. Basically, you kill the ones whose "Beware!" indicator is set too low, and the remaining population is more wary.

One theory says that the much of large fauna of North America, like mastadons, went the way of the dodo since they had not learned to fear humans. Certainly a significant number went extinct about the time humans allegedly appeared.

[Sister Vigilante]

The geese that fly down here for the winter will also cross the street right in front of traffic, in a long line. And everyone stops and waits.

[CookingWithGas]

Originally Posted by Smeghead

...the iguana never did figure out that it was safer in the water.

Safer in the water? Being tossed by a human is safer than being eaten by a sand shark (or whatever the iguana's natural predator is). If Darwin had taken a bite out of him the outcome might have been different.

[Filbert]

Originally Posted by Smeghead

This repeated itself over and over and over again, and the iguana never did figure out that it was safer in the water.

It wasn't. The ones of a size to be picked up and thrown can only stay in the water for a few minutes before they chill severely. It it chilled, it would have drowned.

The European robin, which has been mentioned a few times, in very interesting for this- it's well known in the UK and Ireland as being a very 'tame' wild bird (we used to have one living in the garden that would come and scavenge scraps off you in the kitchen if you left the door open)- however, this is not the case in mainland Europe. Historically it was considered unlucky to harm a robin in Britain and Ireland, but they were commonly hunted along with all over small birds on the mainland. Even though in most European countries now, no-one's actually going to hunt one (really, they're tiny, there's no meat on 'em) they still act differently in places they were historically hunted.

But here's the twist- the species is actually semi-migratory. A lot stay all winter, but some that don't get a good territory migrate, and are much more nervous of humans as soon as they make it over the Channel.

Incidently, a lot of New Zealand's birdlife has very little fear of humans, and some actively seem humans out- I often got followed by fantails when picking apples there, they eat insects, and following large animals that disturb leaves and flush them out is a good strategy. Aren't many other large animals but humans there... Fantails are adorably distracting little buggers by the way.

[Smeghead]

OK, fine. Poor choice of words. "Safer" in the sense that he would be "attacked" by this big land animal if he came back to land. The iguana could have swam away to some other stretch of beach or otherwise avoided Darwin, but didn't even make the attempt.

[Spoke]

I've noticed that mockingbirds are curious critters. They will follow me around and watch me in the back yard. Of course, it's not like they are perching on my shoulder or anything, but they do seem to seek out interaction. (Or maybe they are just protecting a nest or waiting for me to uncover a worm or something. Who knows?)

Upthread, someone mentioned cows. Unless a calf was raised by humans or in close proximity with humans, the adult cow will be "skittish" around humans. It won't let you walk right up and touch it. It will be easily spooked and will run away if you make any sudden move. In other words, cows behave like prey.

[dropzone]

Originally Posted by Maastricht

Some animals have taken in abandoned babies and raised them to be "feral children".

Weeeeeellll, in all the cases that can be investigated it's simply not true, just poor handicapped bastards set loose by their parents when they got too tough to handle, and often used as carnival attractions.

And Kaspar Hauser doesn't belong in a list of feral children. Neglected for part of his life? Sure. Stuck in a dungeon for a time? It's a strong possibility, but not long enough to cause any of the expected disabilities. Unable to walk? First reports remarked on his too-small shoes. Unable to speak? No, he just spoke with a thick, hick accent at first. Uneducated? Before everybody latched onto the "raised in a dungeon" thing and made him the talk of the world he spoke of going to school for a time. Real son of the Grand Duke of Baden and spirited away by his father's wicked stepmother so her son could inherit the title? I spoke with one of the people involved with the latest MtDNA tests and another forensic MtDNA expert and the tests show that there is a strong possibility there is something to that theory.

I've been saying it for more years than I can remember, but I really need to finish that Staff Report.

[Ulfreida]

What most of the previous posts refer to is simply learned behavior. Animals, just like humans, have a strong interest in learning what is dangerous or harmless, and also what has potential benefits (basically, food). Animals which evolved without land predators -- either on islands or because they are too big to be attacked -- have no natural innate pattern of keeping their distance. They either acquire it or are hunted to extinction, whichever comes first.

Some wild species have behaviors which tend to make them easier to get close to. That doesn't make them tame.

Domestic animals have been selected for the inborn ability to *become* tame via interaction with humans when young. If you raise them without any human interaction, they are generally as frightened of human beings as any wild animal.

Many wild animals can be tamed in infancy but once they reach puberty are no longer reliably safe, especially non-castrated males.

[Maastricht]

Originally Posted by dropzone

I spoke with one of the people involved with the latest MtDNA tests and another forensic MtDNA expert and the tests show that there is a strong possibility there is something to that theory.

I've been saying it for more years than I can remember, but I really need to finish that Staff Report.

Yes, please do finish it! I didn't know there was dna tests going on around the Hauser case.

However, in the other cases of feral children, animals did take up the care of an abandoned child as one of their own. I don't find that very surprising: we do it too.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by dropzone

...I've been saying it for more years than I can remember, but I really need to finish that Staff Report.

You've probably already seen this - The Perfect Master on feral children: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...-other-animals

[ralph124c]

Originally Posted by Ulfreida

What most of the previous posts refer to is simply learned behavior. Animals, just like humans, have a strong interest in learning what is dangerous or harmless, and also what has potential benefits (basically, food). Animals which evolved without land predators -- either on islands or because they are too big to be attacked -- have no natural innate pattern of keeping their distance. They either acquire it or are hunted to extinction, whichever comes first.

Some wild species have behaviors which tend to make them easier to get close to. That doesn't make them tame.

Domestic animals have been selected for the inborn ability to *become* tame via interaction with humans when young. If you raise them without any human interaction, they are generally as frightened of human beings as any wild animal.

Many wild animals can be tamed in infancy but once they reach puberty are no longer reliably safe, especially non-castrated males.

This is very true-raccoons can be quite friendly when immature. However, as adults, they are very unpredictable and aggressive.
I think the question of whether animals "like us" is complex-they tolerate us, in hopes of obtaining food/shelter, etc.

[Chronos]

I expect that wild cows would probably behave similarly to bison, which (in areas where they're not hunted) basically ignore humans entirely: They don't seek us out, but if there's a human a foot away from the route that a bison intends to walk, it'll just go right on by without changing its path (and in fact if there's a human directly on its path, it still won't change its path, which of course leads to some improvement of the human gene pool).

[dropzone]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

You've probably already seen this - The Perfect Master on feral children: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...-other-animals

Unca Cece needs to update that one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amala_a...a#Recent_study

[dropzone]

Originally Posted by Maastricht

Yes, please do finish it! I didn't know there was dna tests going on around the Hauser case.

I need to find some of my translations so I don't need to translate them again. Hard drives on my old and older computers have died so wish me luck.

However, in the other cases of feral children, animals did take up the care of an abandoned child as one of their own.

Actually, there is no good evidence of that.

[Chipacabra]

Whenever I've encountered a skunk, I've found that it doesn't seem to care one way or the other about my presence. Even walking up to about 5 feet away or so, the skunk will usually just keep on snuffling about its business. I'm not about to test just how close I can get, though!

My mom's got an anecdote of a skunk walking into her tent while she was laying there reading, and it just stared at her until she shared her grapes, and then left.

I think that generally speaking, humans are too noisy and grabby for the comfort of most wildlife, even when we're not actually out to get them. Easier to just avoid us than to stress out trying to guess what we're going to do.

[Corcaigh]

Originally Posted by PapSett

While this isn't really an answer, it brings up something in my mind that amazes me. Animals that have been horribly abused in their lives often (not always, but much more commonly than I would expect) have this amazing capacity for forgiveness and trust.

There was a woman locally who ran an animal shelter, and she used to say the same thing, that it was amazing how these abused dogs would pick up and recover. Apparently there's a dog fighting gang in the area, and she used to get the losers from fights dropped over her fence in the middle of the night. One had most of his lower lip ripped off, damage to his eye and had been nearly scalped (seems the other dog got him by the head, upper teeth near his ear, lower teeth in the eye, and ripped).

I still see that dog around town with his new owner - he looks a fright, but he's happy, well fed, and well looked after.

Originally Posted by Filbert

The European robin, which has been mentioned a few times, in very interesting for this- it's well known in the UK and Ireland as being a very 'tame' wild bird

We have a "pet" robin who sits in our front hedge




I think horses would fall under the category of liking humans, how else do you explain why a prey animal would allow a predator to not only keep them in 'captivity' but to handle them on a daily basis, and sit on their backs? Not only can you sit on a horse, but you can persuade it to go one way or the other and how fast you want to go, as well as jump over fences and all sorts.

(yes, I know they bite, kick, and whatnot, but for the most part they're fairly tame!)

[Ludovic]

Originally Posted by Chipacabra

Whenever I've encountered a skunk, I've found that it doesn't seem to care one way or the other about my presence.

I'd second that the skunk is the fearlessest (?) wild critter I've ever seen. I saw one hiking and while it didn't get within five feet of me, when it scooted away from me at around 30 feet, it scooted directly down the trail only to repeat the process again and again rather than run away from me.

Then there was the time the alpine rodent walked directly into the stone shelter I was sitting at on Longs Peak and didn't leave even when it saw me yell at it but that was more an expectation of food than utter fearlessness.

[hibernicus]

Not quite the same thing, but wild mice sometimes stay still to the extent that you can reach down and touch them. I'm sure it's not because they like humans though - staying very still might be a form of hiding.

[araminty]

In my experience, domestic animals, or imprinted animals, are the only ones that I've found which actually seek out human company. At the zoo where I work, over the past few years, we've introduced several new baby animals to the collection. These range from orphaned wildlife (skunks, opossums) to carefully bred show rabbits to factory farmed ferrets.

We had a fascinating test case last summer - we received two baby opossums, within a few days of each other. One had been bred in captivity as a pet, removed from her mother when fully furred, and hand fed. One had been injured at a similar age (fully furred, weaned) and treated at a local wildlife rehab. Unfortunately, the well-meaning person who'd caught the injured baby had not followed instructions, leaving her in a box under the sign saying "DO NOT LEAVE ANIMALS HERE." The main reason for this is to ensure the required information is collected, especially where the animal was found. By CA law, rehabilitated wildlife must be released within two miles of its capture site. If, as in this case, there's no capture site recorded, the animal cannot be released, at least, not without a lot of paperwork, and rehabs don't always have the resources for this, especially for a fairly common animal like an opossum. She was declared non-releasable, and transferred to our zoo.

So we treated both opossums the same way, fed them the same diet, gradually introduced them to being handled, to crates, to being touched by children - it can be a long process, and some animals are never completely successful as program animals.

Including our captive-bred opossum. We speculate that the critical period for imprinting was missed, whether it's younger than expected in opossums (something to do with their marsupiality?) or our quarantine procedures interfered with it somehow. She is just not as amenable to handling as our rehab opossum. A year later, we haven't given up on her, and, of course, she has a loving home at the zoo for the rest of her (short) life, (opossum lifespan, even in captivity, is only around 3-4 yrs) whether or not she's ever able to be seen by the public. As a highly nocturnal animals, she's also not particularly suitable for exhibit, and we don't have the resources for an indoor night-shifted nocturnal exhibit. I wish we did!

This behavior is why I can't in good conscience recommend exotic pets. Almost all domestic animals will actively seek out human company. There's no guarantee of that with wild animals, even hand-raised babies.

[coremelt]

I did the training program for WIRES (volunteer wildlife rescue) in Australia last year and they are very very careful to make sure that the young animals DON'T imprint on human carers since it will inevitably lead to a nasty death later on for an adult native Australian animal that has no fear of humans.

Apparently the exception is bats, eg the common flying fox, it MUST have an imprinted parent or it just dies from loneliness I guess? So they encourage the bond with carer and bat.

In the end I didn't have time to take on WIRES due to work commitments and I am not living in Australia right now, but when that changes I will 100 percent volunteer to be a bat carer.

see image:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=austr...r:26,s:0,i:131