• Question: Can animals become depressed?

    Asked by Eva to Carrie, Ellen, Rupert on 16 Mar 2017. This question was also asked by Halsey.
    • Photo: Rupert Marshall

      Rupert Marshall answered on 16 Mar 2017:

      Yes they can, especially if they are in captivity and not looked after properly. Sometimes it is because of boredom and not having enough to do. Good zoos give their animals things to do, like working to get their food rather than just giving it them on a plate.

    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 16 Mar 2017:

      I think unfortunately yes they can, and as Rupert says, they do. Lots of zoos now are working really hard to make sure their animals never get to that state though, which is really good news! Depressed animals often become quite lethargic to the point they may become totally dissociated from their environment 🙁

    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 17 Mar 2017:

      Not all animals are sentient – this means that they can feel pleasure and also suffer. As far as we know, all vertebrates and octopus/cuttlefish are sentient but we’re discovering new species that can feel emotions too. If they are sentient then they can experience depression. In fact, lots of research uses depressed mice to study how well human anti-depressants work. Scientists can breed mice to be easily depressed and then cause it on purpose by putting them in barren houses with no other mice. We cause it by accident in any environment that doesn’t meet the animals needs and its something we need to do more about. A lot of behaviour and welfare research is about working out what to do about this.

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