Can Animals Fall in Love?
The science behind ‘romantic love’ among animals.
Albatrosses follow an elaborate selection process when looking for their life partner, one that involves dancing, preening, staring, and vocalizations. Once they find their ‘significant other,’ they create a unique language and rituals to communicate with one another.
Elephants are another species that use a number of romantic gestures to develop long-lasting relationships with their loved ones. They entwine their trunks as a display of affection and are known to have families that include grandparents, aunts, and uncles. They even shed tears to mourn the loss of loved ones. Anglerfish, lovebirds, seahorses, chimpanzees, manakin birds, great hornbills, bowerbirds, and pufferfish are also included in the list of some of the most romantic animals in the world.
For us humans, we define love as a phenomenon that consists of several aspects, some of which include a longing to be together, being in love itself, and having sexual cravings. While we know that animals are sexually motivated beings and are capable of developing stable bonds with one another, we are less sure about the extent to which they are capable of feeling love in the way human beings do.
