Gregg M said:
Being content in a location where the temp is suitable??? That is instinctive....
Scratching at the cage when it sees you is also a learned behavior triggered by instinct...... No animal wants to be confined to a particular location so when it sees you, it sees an out...... As much as you want to think it wants to be with you, it is silly to truely believe that is the case..... It instinctivly knows that it should not be confined..... It is unnatural for a reptile, or any animal, to be caged..... These actions are driven by instinct, not emotions towards its keeper...... I will repeat this again, reptiles do not have the parts of the brain to feel or control emotions......
Yes, being content in an appropriate environment is 'instinctive'. I never claimed that it was otherwise. And if the animal instinctively knows it shouldn't be confined (That's a complex idea if ever there was one) wouldn't it stop seeking a way out of confinement when it discovers that the outside is unsuitable in terms of environment - what if outside is cold, it's bright and it does not contain food?
And I certainly didn't say that my geckos 'want to be with me' ... but they certainly ARE capable of, as I stated, being aware of the difference between me sitting at my computer, a visitor sitting at my computer and nobody sitting at my computer - and of behaving according to that distinction. To me, that implies more knowledge of the outside world than a mere machine.
I also never claimed that the -geckos- feel complex emotions. I do believe they feel simplistic emotions, perhaps on a level with a newborn baby. Newborn baby humans do not show complex emotions - they express need, fear and preference and cannot control any of those... but nobody says that humans lack the capacity to feel emotion.
On an odder side note, with personal experience:
I have a juvenile, homebred gecko, Keid. Keid is very 'eyes-focused' - if I look in the vivarium at her (or if her 'daddy' - our roommate who was home when she hatched, looks in at her) she will move towards the eyes. Now, that seems... extremely maladaptive in terms of instinct. Moving TOWARDS a predator? Heck, she'll let us open the viv door and keep moving forwards towards those eyes. On the other hand, she will NOT do it for my husband, nor for strangers. So, to me, that implies that she's 'decided' (for lack of a better word) that roommate and I are 'not predators' ... which implies a great deal of awareness of difference between human faces and an ability to override her instinct to avoid eyes when it comes to particular not-predators. Roommate and I, incidentally, are NOT the only people who feed the geckos. Husband also feeds them.
Celaeno, my Tremper Albino female, is protective over her eggs. I know when she's laid them because she's lying on top of a mound of substrate in her humid hide - and she DOES attempt to protect them from me when I go to collect them. I don't believe she 'loves' the eggs - but she certainly seems to 'miss' them when I've put them into the incubator. She spends an inordinate amount of time digging and looking for them, but does not pile the substrate back up as I'd expect if she were protecting a nest -site-.
And Alya, one of my patternless males, will come out of the open door of his vivarium onto my arm more readily if I'm singing or talking than if I'm silent. No clue at all why that might be - I know they're not deaf, so I can't explain why they'd move towards a source of sound, especially since I don't THINK I sound like a cricket.
I know they don't 'love' me - they see my hands as potential predators in many cases, as sources of warmth in others. They may see my eyes as a point of interest. My voice can act as an attractant. I'm certainly not a potential mate nor a potential rival.
But they certainly do have their own unique personalities and preferences, and that's why I found myself feeling a lot more affection for THEM than I'd expected. Everything I'd read before I got them implied that they weren't more than little biological machines. Everything I've experienced since ... they're certainly little characters, that's for sure.
