Reply To: Cricket Contest featuring my Gecko

[Zoodulcis]

Sounds like Echo is grateful to be alive. No joke, I have seen that myself and know many other pet owners of all sorts of species who are convinced that their pets are actually showing gratitude to the human that rescued them. It’s common for scientists to dismiss those sorts of observations as ‘anthropomorphism’ and there may be some of that, sure, thinking that an animal is more like a human than it really is. However, and new information about animal behaviors driven by emotion come to light within the scientific community, this scientist prefers to keep an open mind. I believe on a personal level that giving animals credit for a greater measure of intelligence than has been true in the past not only makes us better humans and pet owners, it makes us better scientists because we are more open-minded and able therefore to ask more interesting questions. Now I will take off my professor hat and ask you what sort of additional reptile, amphibian or both, species are you dreaming of acquiring when you are ready and have done the research. Oh and kudos to you for doing that research and being armed with information. Keep it up!