Reply To: Cricket contest

[Zoodulcis]

Any animal can have depression or anxiety. These are not psychological disorders that are the strict purview of humans. These feelings are not even disorders, but can be very adaptive under the right circumstances. For instance, an animal that has no kinship bonds will suffer no slings and arrows at the loss of a blood relative. OK, fine. But ties of kinship mean that an organism will act in a manner that promotes gene replication. The purest gene replication is, of course, through one’s own offspring. But there is a certain amount of evolutionary sense for an animal to feel affinity for, and friendship toward, one’s own kind in general. But that implies a framework, a template, for caring. Under certain circumstances, that template can be highjacked and filial affinity toward a totally inappropriate species can be engendered. Higher-order thought, such as that which makes philosopher’s out of monkeys, is not necessary for an animal to feel bonds of attachment, and depression or anxiety when those bonds are broken. This is an emerging field of ethology that is very exciting, especially so since many religious and cultural assumptions concerning humans as distinctively different from animals in all ways are being broken down, and broken through. So the less professorly answer is…sure. Maybe your beardie was traumatized at some point in his young life and has chosen this particular animal to assist him with coping. Or perhaps they just like the way each other smells!! Who can be sure, but what a fun adventure in animal behavior you have ahead of you!