Animal Behavior Quotes

“Much of human behavior can be explained by watching the wild beasts around us. They are constantly teaching us things about ourselves and the way of the universe, but most people are too blind to watch and listen.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Sure they're animals. You think you just found out a new principle? Sometimes I wonder just how naive you really are. The French lords and ladies used to screw after the guillotinings. The old Romans used to stuff each other during the gladiatorial matches. That's entertainment, Garraty. It's nothing new.”
― Richard Bachman, The Long Walk

“Honeybees possess amazing numerical skills that rival those of many vertebrates. Honeybees have a reputation of being insect geniuses: not only can they enumerate and order numbers, but they also possess elaborate working memory to ponder about upcoming decisions, understand abstract concepts such as 'sameness' and 'difference', and learn intricate skills from other bees. And they achieve all of this with fewer than one million neurons.”
― Andreas Nieder, A Brain for Numbers: The Biology of the Number Instinct

“Just because a behavior is "natural" does not make it good. Arsenic is a natural component of mineral water, but that does not make it something you want to drink.”
― Ptera Hunter, The Wisdom of Loki: The Art of Lying in the Natural World

“Two Liberties (A Sonnet)

There is not one but two liberties,
One is savage and the other is civilized.
Savage liberty lacks accountability,
The civilized one makes us humanized.
In the jungle liberty is the supreme law,
But one that involves no accountability.
Thus injustice is the norm of wildlife,
But it can't be accepted in human society.
Accountability is the line of control,
Between human and animal behavior.
You don't need intellect to draw the line,
All you need is a well-formed character.
So liberty must be guided by accountability,
Only then can we create a sane society.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Boldly Comes Justice: Sentient Not Silent

“Of all the animals on earth, only the human is born with the capacity to conquer its animal nature.”
― Abhijit Naskar, When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation

“Liberty is not a new thing, animals live in absolute liberty with no bounds whatsoever since they came to existence on this planet, yet the animal world is not civilized, you know why – because though they have liberty, they do not have the brain capacity for accountability - and that very absence of accountability makes the kingdom of absolute liberty also the kingdom of absolute cruelty. Hence, it's accountability we ought to focus on, not liberty.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Heart Force One: Need No Gun to Defend Society

“Out there in the wild, the lion is a VIP, and the rest are his entourage.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Song of a Nature Lover

“Take away memory—the sense of who we are—and human beings revert to animal behavior," Ryter says. "And animals are easier to exterminate than humans.”
― Rodman Philbrick, The Last Book in the Universe

“...and inoffensive. She [the pet rabbit] particularly enjoyed sitting in the center of the kitchen table and from that spot would regard Ace, Esther and Hoffman gravely. Bonnie had a feline manner.
"Will she always be this judgmental?" Esther wanted to know.
Bonnie became more canine when she was allowed outdoors. She would sleep on the porch, lying on her side in a patch of sun, and if...”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, The Famous Torn and Restored Lit Cigarette Trick

“The Human Animal (A Sonnet)

The civilized know how uncivilized they are,
The uncivilized insist on being deemed civilized.
The victor knows the fallacy of being the victor,
The wise knows there is no such thing as being wise.
The real human is aware of their inhuman predispositions,
While the inhuman fails to acknowledge all primitive bent.
And there is no question of the rise of civilization,
If there is no question of questioning the self.
The animal is animal for it lacks the brain capacity,
For self-correction beyond the need of self-preservation.
But more animal than animal is the so-called human being,
That despite having the brains, fails to act in ascension.
It is no human that does not know how animal they are.
The animal becomes human, the moment it becomes aware.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mukemmel Musalman: Kafir Biraz, Peygamber Biraz

“Si los monos lograran sentir aburrimiento, podrían volverse hombres.”
― Goethe W Johan

“Don't be fooled by my attire,
You think of me a fool because
I want you to think of me a fool.
I am a behaviorist, and by behaving idiot
I study who's true, who's a tool.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“It's been two hundred thousand years,
since we developed the face of human.
Question is, how many more millennia,
till we develop the heart of human!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“Just try to maneuver against a crowd of students and teachers who have learned that an administrative meeting just ended and that food plates are still available in an open conference room. It's like a shark feeding-frenzy.”
― Ptera Hunter, The Wisdom of Loki: The Art of Lying in the Natural World

“We still need fat in our diet, but we do not need any more fat than we needed in the stone age. Our hormones, however, beg to differ.”
― Ptera Hunter, The Wisdom Of Loki

“Without [Loki's] ability to deceive, the foresight of Oden had no power to protect Asgard. Without the ability to lie, the power of Thor stood diminished.”
― Ptera Hunter , The Wisdom of Loki: The Art of Lying in the Natural World

“Try to maneuver against a crowd of students and teachers who have learned that an administrative meeting just ended and that food plates are still available in an open conference room. It's like a shark feeding-frenzy.”
― Ptera Hunter, The Wisdom of Loki: The Art of Lying in the Natural World

“Grooming releases endorphins--pleasant, reinforcing chemical signals. The pleasure derived from grooming seems to outweigh the pain of the occasional bite.”
― Ptera Hunter, The Wisdom of Loki: The Art of Lying in the Natural World

“Rather than expend energy on an obvious ploy, a chimpanzee can give social clues so subtle that Agatha Christie would be envious.”
― Ptera Hunter, The Wisdom of Loki: The Art of Lying in the Natural World

“Plants can be just as deceptive as animals. They play the same games of mimicry, and they obey the same rules of diminishing returns.”
― Ptera Hunter, The Wisdom of Loki: The Art of Lying in the Natural World

“Delusional group-think can help us change into what we cannot deceive ourselves into becoming on our own”
― Ptera Hunter, The Wisdom of Loki: The Art of Lying in the Natural World

“When we tell half-truths in an attempt to maintain social norms and values, we risk losing both our integrity and the maintenance of those norms. We have to come clean with our audience if we have any hope of getting their attention and keeping their belief in us.”
― Ptera Hunter, The Wisdom of Loki: The Art of Lying in the Natural World

“A know-it-all attitude and presentation annihilates credibility.”
― Ptera Hunter, The Wisdom of Loki: The Art of Lying in the Natural World

“[...] the chimps had many empty hours to fill. Time can seem endless and often cruel for caged animals.
Nim and Sally did have some diversions in their enclosure: a small television set, rarely watched; a tire swing; a basketball set; and a variety of allegedly indestructible toys. But the chimps mainly passed the time interacting with each other—grooming, cuddling, playing, chasing. When occasional squabbles erupted, their high-pitched screeches could be heard from a distance. Minutes later the couple would make up and hug. Nim was frequently seen signing “sorry” to Sally, who always forgave her close friend.
On his own, Nim spent hours flipping through the pages of old magazines, seeming particularly diverted by images of people. The magazines, which Nim tore to shreds, were swept away at the end of each day and replaced by new ones in the morning. But he did manage to keep two children's books intact—no small accomplishment. His prize possessions, they were carefully tucked away in the loft area of his cage. (WER would have appreciated Nim's affection for books.) During the day, Nim brought the books down from the loft and pored over them intently, as if studying for an exam. One was a Sesame Street book with an illustrated section on how to learn ASL. The other was in essence his personal photo album from his New York years, a battered copy of The Story of Nim: The Chimp Who Learned Language, published in 1980. In it, dozens of black-and-white photographs of Nim— with Terrace, LaFarge, Petitto, Butler, and a handful of others—tell the story of his childhood (or an idealized version of it) from his infancy to his return to Oklahoma. Nim appears dressed in little-boy clothes, doing household chores, and learning his first signs. The book ends with a photo of Nim and Mac playing together, cage-free, in Oklahoma. The accompanying text explains that Nim is a chimpanzee, not a human, which was why he had been sent back to IPS.”
― Elizabeth Hess, Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human

“There is not one but two awareness,
One primeval another civilized.
Animal awareness prevents death,
Human awareness preserves life.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iman Insaniyat, Mazhab Muhabbat: Pani, Agua, Water, It's All One

“Have you ever wondered why humans buy their dogs toys that squeak? It’s because the squeak mimics the sound of an animal fighting for its life, and the dog gets excited. Sometimes those squeaky, desperate sounds of struggle just make a predator want to bite even more.”
― Harley LaRoux, Her Soul to Take

“Ancestry is Garbage (The Sonnet)

DNA test may reveal your ancestry,
But there is no DNA test for character.
IQ may reveal deficit in logical aptitude,
There's no IQ test for excellence or genius.

If bloodline dictated destiny,
We'd still be dangling from trees.
Not that we've done much better,
But at least there is possibility.

In the end we are all monkeys,
We all come from the jungle.
Question is, have we conquered
the jungle that lurks in our heart,
have we risen yet above the animal!

Ancestry is garbage, IQ is useless,
Living humans don't rely on such nonsense.
Heart, brain, backbone, these make who we are,
Everything else is mythology of the savages.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“Pets enrich our lives and those of our children. We admire the tiger not only for its fearful symmetry but as a symbol of freedom itself, so we offer it rather more freedom than we would think fit for the chicken. It is impossible, however, to avoid the issue that both the chicken and the tiger are living on our terms.”
― John Webster, Animal Welfare: Limping Towards Eden Paperback – April 29, 2005

“Direction and duration of gaze figures prominently. For the cat as hunter or prey, surveillance and vigilance are locked together. Releasing gaze from another cat, signals affiliation in blinking and alternating the direction of gaze allows for an antagonist to move away. Barriers to sight lines, are security sought in the cats’ seeking dens and resting spaces with raised sides. Relying on the safety of sight lines, when vulnerable, can be seen in preferred elimination with uncovered litter boxes and why removing box coverings can be effective with unacceptable elimination in the home." From "Cat Behavior, Domestication and Sociality" in BEHAVIOR MATTERS”
― Frania Shelley-Grielen, Behavior Matters for Cats and Dogs