interspecies friendships

April 2, 2011 10:49 PM

A girl and her dog play a board game together | a man and the goose who loves him | a girl and her lamb named Bee | a sheep and dog play tag |rabbit and cat (the aww at :58) | Snaggle Puss and baby bunny | duckling feeds carp.

Interspecies Friends

posted by nickyskye (35 comments total)

But what do you get when you put a dog, a cat, a guinea and a bunny all in the same room?
posted by MaryDellamorte at 11:00 PM on April 2, 2011 [8 favorites]

A happier thread? :)
posted by nickyskye at 11:02 PM on April 2, 2011

I love how Bee the Lamb is obviously the chaotic good to Ninja Cat's lawful evil.
posted by unknowncommand at 11:03 PM on April 2, 2011 [4 favorites]

These portraits of the web of life are especially poignant to me today; our good friend's dog, who is the sister of our own dog died today, and we are all missing her very much. Thanks so much.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 11:14 PM on April 2, 2011

Man, some of these sorta blow my mind. Like the guy in the goose video says, I always assumed animals are pretty dumb (and maybe they are and the animals in these videos have some hay-wired brains).

I know it's never wise to anthropomorphize animals since they aren't humans and don't have exactly the same emotions as humans, but it's really uncanny to see such 'intelligent' behavoir.

Is it just mimicry? Is the goose confusing the man with someone else at the park who was extra nice to her? Maybe by giving her more food or consciously/accidentally warded off a potential predator? maybe he has a particular smell she is attracted to?

Is the duck at the end feeding the fish because other humans fed him the same way? Was he trained to do it? Can ducks even be trained?

I'm sure there's some SCIENCE behind this and these aren't really as unique or remarkable as they seem (without more context), but at face-value, it's slightly unnerving to me.
posted by johnstein at 11:27 PM on April 2, 2011

Also, don't miss the update on Dominic and MariO the goose
posted by johnstein at 11:31 PM on April 2, 2011 [8 favorites]

Don't forget this classic.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 11:45 PM on April 2, 2011

I don't think becoming attached to things (or people, or animals) is a sign of any special intelligence. Love can make humans pretty stoopid.
posted by LogicalDash at 12:16 AM on April 3, 2011

Whoo, someone is clearly drunk... or just as cynical as I am...
posted by hincandenza at 12:56 AM on April 3, 2011

Super adorable; thanks for sharing! I like how many of the videos on the blog are feel-good news stories. All with the same take home message - "if these two can be friends, why can't we all?"

Also, from the youtube description of the cat and bunny video:

I am sad to report that someone of my neighbourhood killed Tigger. We have no proof but we know.

Uh, what?
posted by rabbitbookworm at 1:36 AM on April 3, 2011

There's a sweet caption, and it's on a blog called "Interspecies Friends", but this photo pretty clearly captures a wall-eyed killmonster about to murder someone with his bitey little teeth.
posted by biddeford at 2:28 AM on April 3, 2011

Interspecies friendships sound great until you sit down at the negotiating table. The attorney for the wildebeests still hasn't reached an accord with either the wild dogs or the crocodiles.
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:42 AM on April 3, 2011

I love cute Youtube videos but this one takes the cake (rat loves cat), because of these two comments:

Thumbs up if you thought this was extremely adorable, then scrolled down and read the comments about taxoplasmosis
TheNotru 1 week ago 27

@CapaodaCanoa it is likely the rat that has the taxoplasmosis infection and that's what you are seeing here. Taxoplasmosis makes rats seek out cat pheromone, if you notice, the rat repeatedly targets the cat's anus and tale when it runs up to it, which is where many of the cat's sent producing glands are. It looks like the cat is uninterested in the rat, but taxoplasmosis is what makes the rat so interested in the cat
Booddaa 3 weeks ago 14

posted by asymptotic at 3:33 AM on April 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

Thank you -- I laughed (Bee) and cried (Dominic and MariO).
posted by thinkpiece at 4:57 AM on April 3, 2011

Polar bears playing with sled dogs
posted by InkaLomax at 5:46 AM on April 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm sure there's some SCIENCE behind this and these aren't really as unique or remarkable as they seem (without more context), but at face-value, it's slightly unnerving to me.

Don't fight it, man.
posted by Mike Mongo at 7:11 AM on April 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

The sweetest thing about the goose story is that the goose happened to pick such a sweet guy. That animals are loving and loyal I've never doubted, but it's pretty amazing that the goose decided to follow a random human being who turned out to be the perfect companion for a slightly daft goose.

Mario doesn't appear to be a Canada goose, which is why the story itself does not surprise me. The only geese I've met are Canada geese, and they'd as soon pick your eyes out as bond with you.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:22 AM on April 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

You will cry, I promise: Dog and elephant are friends.
posted by nasreddin at 7:49 AM on April 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

My grandmother used to have wild ducks (mainly mallards) that would knock on her door and beg for food.

There was a creek behind her house where the ducks lived. Every once in a while -- typically when young grandchildren were around --she'd feed the ducks, so they got to know her. Eventually they figured out that if they walked from the creek to her house (it was a long, deep back yard) and presented themselves at her front door (and by presented, I mean rapping on the door with their beaks) they had a shot at getting some bread.

Oh, and for people wanting more interspecies animals, here's a cat taking care of baby squirrels. Somehow I don't think this relationship is going to work in the long terms, especially as the kittens get older.
posted by sardonyx at 7:51 AM on April 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Japanese bobtail cat and elderly greyhound
posted by vers at 8:02 AM on April 3, 2011 [5 favorites]

These are all sweeter than a candy store. I really liked Bee the lamb -- now I know why there all those references to "a lamb in springtime". But they reminded me of the freakiest "animals acting like people" video I've ever seen.

It was some nature documentary. I can't remember where I saw it, but it was following a troupe of monkeys. One of the monkeys went and stole a pup from a group of wild dogs, and the narration said the monkey kept it as a pet. Even as I type this it seems hard to believe and I'm doubting my memory. Has anybody else seen (video of) something like this?
posted by benito.strauss at 8:05 AM on April 3, 2011

tortoise and kitten go for a stroll & tortoise loves kitteh, kitteh rejects tortoise's advances, gives in
posted by raztaj at 8:34 AM on April 3, 2011

Maria/Mario was the same goose who followed the band around during the shoot of Ok Go's End Love video, which was filmed at the lake. Maybe he just has a thing for humans?
posted by miratime at 8:35 AM on April 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

Can ducks even be trained?

They sure can! Birds have an amazing capacity for learning. it's one of the things that makes them very successful as a species.
posted by Calzephyr at 9:02 AM on April 3, 2011

CuteFilter.
posted by Fizz at 9:18 AM on April 3, 2011

From the Greyhound / Cat video:

amazing dog, why no more videos of him,is it your dog?bye

Sometimes Youtube comments are remarkable for reasons other than ignorance, go figure.
posted by codacorolla at 9:51 AM on April 3, 2011

Maria/Mario was the same goose who followed the band around during the shoot of Ok Go's End Love video, which was filmed at the lake. Maybe he just has a thing for humans?

It's Maria, and she's a she.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:34 AM on April 3, 2011

One of our cats used to sleep in the dog's dish.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 10:51 AM on April 3, 2011

She is not a she. If you watch johnstein's link the zoo says she's a he. Or he's a he. Or whatever.
posted by cjorgensen at 10:58 AM on April 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

Thanks for all the wonderful link additions to the thread. You guys are the best. MariO obviously discovered a real honeybun in his friend, Dominic. The baby squirrels and cat, the dogs and polar bears ones are my new faves.
posted by nickyskye at 12:19 PM on April 3, 2011

I know it's never wise to anthropomorphize animals since they aren't humans and don't have exactly the same emotions as humans

johnstein, this is what pisses me off about animal behavior "scientists". That very sciencey-sounding statement is an assumption. As in, an unproven hypothesis.

Until it can be conclusively proven that animal and human emotions are different (and it hasn't been), it is merely an unproven hypothesis.

In fact, much research has pointed to the opposite: mammals far removed from us demonstrate feelings of "fairness", for instance.

Anthropomorphize all you want; you aren't writing a research paper, and even if you were, anthropomorphizing is arguably better than assuming animals are stupid instinct machines.

/ off soapbox.
posted by IAmBroom at 12:49 PM on April 3, 2011 [8 favorites]

I know it's never wise to anthropomorphize animals since they aren't humans and don't have exactly the same emotions as humans

No, they are way superior to people...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 3:05 PM on April 3, 2011

My particular favourite of this genre :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIiZXghSNTM
posted by devious truculent and unreliable at 4:20 AM on April 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

That dog is better at games than he looks. Kicked my ass in Agricola just the other day.
posted by papercake at 10:48 AM on April 4, 2011

Goose looks after blind dog: Blind boxer dog Baks has got a new lease of life - after being taken under the wing of a pet goose called Buttons.
posted by homunculus at 4:14 PM on April 22, 2011