# Animals that like us **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 7, 2012, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153 "2012-05-07T12:40:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/41 "2012-05-08T20:34:52Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/42 "2012-05-08T21:00:28Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/43 "2012-05-09T02:20:50Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > You’ve probably already seen this - The Perfect Master on feral children: [Has a human child ever been raised by wolves or other animals? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/651/has-a-human-child-ever-been-raised-by-wolves-or-other-animals) Unca Cece needs to update that one. [Amala and Kamala - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amala_and_Kamala#Recent_study) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/44 "2012-05-09T02:25:53Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > :eek:🆒 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. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Chipacabra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Chipacabra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chipacabra)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/45 "2012-05-09T07:32:26Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/46 "2012-05-09T11:56:56Z")
> [@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. > [@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!) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/47 "2012-05-09T12:02:46Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/48 "2012-05-09T12:30:57Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/49 "2012-05-09T14:30:19Z")
In my experience, domestic animals, or [imprinted](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprinting_%28psychology%29) 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. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/50 "2012-05-09T14:56:51Z")
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=australia+fruitbat&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&sa=N&rls=en&biw=1603&bih=812&tbm=isch&tbnid=SxsQYyLBoDLYiM:&imgrefurl=http://babyanimalzoo.com/baby-australia-fruit-bats&docid=2Pwoi\_IHioaJ9M&imgurl=http://babyanimalzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/baby-flying-foxes.jpg&w=600&h=435&ei=RIWqT56EBeKtiAeczuGHDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=325&vpy=525&dur=2688&hovh=191&hovw=264&tx=140&ty=115&sig=113325779047732758114&page=1&tbnh=128&tbnw=171&start=0&ndsp=33&ved=1t:429,r:26,s:0,i:131](http://www.google.com/imgres?q=australia+fruitbat&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&sa=N&rls=en&biw=1603&bih=812&tbm=isch&tbnid=SxsQYyLBoDLYiM:&imgrefurl=http://babyanimalzoo.com/baby-australia-fruit-bats&docid=2Pwoi_IHioaJ9M&imgurl=http://babyanimalzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/baby-flying-foxes.jpg&w=600&h=435&ei=RIWqT56EBeKtiAeczuGHDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=325&vpy=525&dur=2688&hovh=191&hovw=264&tx=140&ty=115&sig=113325779047732758114&page=1&tbnh=128&tbnw=171&start=0&ndsp=33&ved=1t:429,r:26,s:0,i:131) ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/51 "2012-05-09T15:00:04Z")
It would be interesting to know the story of the cat that adopted a friend and me when we were staying at a tourist resort in Tunisia. It was indubitably an African wildcat, not a feral cat, but it was very friendly towards people, unlike the other cats in the area that preferred to keep for themselves. We had a theory that it was ostracised from the cat community because it had a speech impediment and couldn’t meow properly. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/52 "2012-05-09T15:44:21Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > We had a theory that it was ostracised from the cat community because it had a speech impediment and couldn’t meow properly. Cute and funny, but I would assume that, unlike its fellows, it figured out that tourists eating on the veranda equals people food if it plays nice. And may teach its kittens the trick. You may have started (yet) another line of domestic cats descended from an African Wildcat founder! Or it may have a lot of domestic cat genes already. African Wildcat genes are already a mess. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/53 "2012-05-09T16:12:15Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > We had a theory that it was ostracised from the cat community because it had a speech impediment and couldn’t meow properly. [Adult domestic cats don’t meow to each other.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_communication) Kittens meow to their mothers, and cats meow to humans, but adult cats don’t generally use meows to communicate to each other. It wouldn’t have been ostracized from a cat community because of an inability to meow, assuming African wildcats are the same as domestic cats in this way. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/54 "2012-05-09T16:49:47Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > …I will 100 percent volunteer to be a bat carer. > > see image: > [http://www.google.com/imgres?q=australia+fruitbat&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&sa=N&rls=en&biw=1603&bih=812&tbm=isch&tbnid=SxsQYyLBoDLYiM:&imgrefurl=http://babyanimalzoo.com/baby-australia-fruit-bats&docid=2Pwoi\_IHioaJ9M&imgurl=http://babyanimalzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/baby-flying-foxes.jpg&w=600&h=435&ei=RIWqT56EBeKtiAeczuGHDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=325&vpy=525&dur=2688&hovh=191&hovw=264&tx=140&ty=115&sig=113325779047732758114&page=1&tbnh=128&tbnw=171&start=0&ndsp=33&ved=1t:429,r:26,s:0,i:131](http://www.google.com/imgres?q=australia+fruitbat&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&sa=N&rls=en&biw=1603&bih=812&tbm=isch&tbnid=SxsQYyLBoDLYiM:&imgrefurl=http://babyanimalzoo.com/baby-australia-fruit-bats&docid=2Pwoi_IHioaJ9M&imgurl=http://babyanimalzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/baby-flying-foxes.jpg&w=600&h=435&ei=RIWqT56EBeKtiAeczuGHDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=325&vpy=525&dur=2688&hovh=191&hovw=264&tx=140&ty=115&sig=113325779047732758114&page=1&tbnh=128&tbnw=171&start=0&ndsp=33&ved=1t:429,r:26,s:0,i:131) I’m not much of a bat fan, all in all, but those are pretty cute. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/55 "2012-05-09T17:06:33Z")
Black bears and grizzly bears can get habituated to humans. This generally causes problems, for humans and bears, when it happens. They have been seen [teaching their cubs](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1998/05/21/MN78346.DTL) to get food from garbage and from cars. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/56 "2012-05-09T17:33:39Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > In my experience, domestic animals, or [imprinted](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprinting_%28psychology%29) animals, are the only ones that I’ve found which actually seek out human company. What about the [Barbary macaques of Gibraltar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_macaques_in_Gibraltar), for example? They are neither domesticated nor (presumably) imprinted, but they will climb right onto humans given the chance. It is learned behavior, of course. They are looking for food. But even so, I noticed that one of the macaques that sat on my shoulder started “grooming” my head. (I don’t think he found anything untoward.) So I think you have actually (at least) three categories of animals which will seek out humans: domesticated, imprinted, and _habituated_. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/57 "2012-05-09T17:47:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **coremelt** : > > 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. Have they tried using bat hand puppets? I’ve heard of them doing that with eagles. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/58 "2012-05-09T18:16:40Z")
Well the honey badger doesn’t give a shit. Pigeons actually prefer to live around humans and are easy to live with/domesticate. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/59 "2012-05-09T20:52:04Z")
Holy cats - how freaking cute are those batlings? Seriously, that should come with a warning. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153/60 "2012-05-10T11:06:51Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Cute and funny, but I would assume that, unlike its fellows, it figured out that tourists eating on the veranda equals people food if it plays nice. You mean that brainwashing us to feed him sardines and tuna was just part of his plan to enslave humans. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-that-like-us/621153.md?page=4)