Animals Can Tell the Difference Between Right and Wrong, Research Shows

[Carlos Spicy Wiener]

An ecologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, believes animals can have a sense of morality that allows them to know the difference between right and wrong, London's Daily Telegraph reported.

Marc Bekoff explains in his new book that morals are "hardwired" in a mammal's brain, and has gathered evidence showing how various species appear to have a sense of fairness, help other animals in need and can show empathy, the British newspaper reports.

It was previously believed that only humans had a sense of morality and could experience various emotions.

"The belief that humans have morality and animals don't is a long-standing assumption, but there is a growing amount of evidence that is showing us that this simply cannot be the case," Bekoff said. "Just as in humans, the moral nuances of a particular culture or group will be different from another, but they are certainly there. Moral codes are species specific, so they can be difficult to compare with each other or with humans."

Bekoff's ideas have been met with controversy from skeptics, but has also provided ammunition for animal welfare groups who want animals to be treated more like humans.

[RvP]

You see that thing on the BBC website about the bird making tools to fish out a worm from a plastic tube

Animals are smarter than we think

[Choppie]

I don't buy it. Morals are a learned trait, not ingrained.

[Liquid]

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It would stand to reason that the few species with higher minds that have survived this long would have some way of well keeping the species going and not just to rely on instincts.

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We're animals as well. Just with better brains.

Other animals would have to share some of the morality to survive. More so pack animals would have to know morality rather then learn it. I couldn't see a pack of wolves staying together just because they all choose to do so on their own, but because their natural instincts tell them it's better. Just as the group will also single out a lone wolf sometimes to cast out of the pack for the better or seeing their older friends need help sometimes. With new mothers, when they have pups they care for them (well mostly...) as does the male. Without that, they would most likely die out as a species.

There are a ton more examples I could think of but I like wolves the best

I think most people when they think of morality, they go to the extreme on what is actually right or wrong to us and not what the morality to a less intelligent animal would be.