Thread: why do some animals live with humans so easily.

From my experience with animals from gecko's to cockatiels, to dolphins it seems that the more intelligent animals seem to bond with humans more easily. they can more easily move from living in the wild to living in a human home.
why with less intelligent animals they can often times die from being confined even when provided with all necessities, Do smarter animals just realize that they can be more happy?

Originally Posted by zazzerak

From my experience with animals from gecko's to cockatiels, to dolphins it seems that the more intelligent animals seem to bond with humans more easily. they can more easily move from living in the wild to living in a human home.
why with less intelligent animals they can often times die from being confined even when provided with all necessities, Do smarter animals just realize that they can be more happy?

I don't think any such correlation exists. Cockatiels often develop severe behavioral disorders from negligence since they require a great deal of social contact, but fish can live quite happily as long as the tank is cleaned and they are fed. The cockatiel is likely more intelligent than most fish.

Most domesticated animals have undergone a decent amount of artificial selection to make them more suitable as pets. Domestic dogs, cats, ferrets, and rabbits do well with humans in large part because they have been selected to do so. Although, animals that live in social groups, like the ancestors of dogs, likely make more suitable candidates for domestication.

I don't think any animals really have an understanding of relative happiness between living in the wild and living in a human home.

oh trust salt water fish can be VERY hard to take care of depending on the fish and yeah what he said but animals have feelings to(yes I said it!!!) they may be more primitive and the such but animals can love just like we can also some animals are just more adabtable then others.

I agree with tired and sleepy. There is no correlation with intelligence. The correlation is with degree of tameness, and with degree of toughness in handling difficult environments.

So dogs are very easy to look after, since they have been bred for thousands of years to be tame. And goldfish are easy, since they are tough, and able to survive a wide range of environmental changes.

If the animal is immersed in human environment, I think its comfort depends on how averse to novelty it is. Some intelligent animals, like giraffes, are averse to novelty, whereas certain breeds of horse are called "bomb-proof" because nothing phases them.

Novelty aversion vs. curiosity both have advantages.

The chihuahua that startles and growls or flees at everything is basically a miserable pet.