Yes. They experience most of the same emotions we do: love, anger, fear, and disgust to name a few. It’s a safe bet to say all mammals do experience complex emotions, and many other animal species experience more simple ones. Fear is incredibly valuable to survival.
I worked with a tiger who was scared of wheelchairs and strollers. Others were scared of large film cameras. They were all scared of a tarp flapping in the wind above them changing shadows quickly. Some of these things would cause them to flee to the other side of the enclosure and some would cause them to react with some fearful aggression.
They all showed affection that is an unmistakable example of love. Even when we spent time with them without bringing food they’d approach us and make a vocalization called a “chuff,” that is generally considered to be a friendly greeting. They wouldn’t do that for anyone. Some tigers are freer with their chuffs just as some are more aggressive or fearful.
Think of emotions as shortcuts to help animals behave in a way that will be useful for them. Love fosters the behavior that leads toward mating. Hate or anger are both useful in defending oneself against threats or fighting for a mate. Love also causes a mother tiger to defend their cubs, and want to feed them and keep them alive. Joy is useful in teaching tiger cubs how to hunt as they playful practice hunting their mom and their litter-mates.
One thing to understand is that while tigers have all sorts of emotions they don’t show them the same way humans do. They use their ears and their tails and their body language. They put their ears back and they flick their tail back and forth and they slink. Or they goofily saunter before flopping at the feet of the object of their affection. Since we humans are more social, our emotions are more varied and complex, and we have more ways of showing them. That’s true of many social species. But just because tigers aren’t generally as social in the wild, doesn’t mean they aren’t brimming with emotions.
When I worked with tigers we trainers liked to say that they would treat us with love, respect and trust, and that we’d treat them with love and respect, and less trust, because even though they had pleasant emotions towards us, they were still tigers after all.
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