Your Pet Doesn't See You as a Human — 10 Pets Ranked

Your dog thinks you're its parent. Your hamster thinks you're a predator it just hasn't escaped yet. Here's what 10 popular pets actually think you are — ranked, and backed by real research. We go from the pet that barely registers you exist to the one whose hormones change when it looks at you. One rule decides the whole ranking — and it breaks exactly once. CHAPTERS 0:00 One rule decides everything 0:52 #10 Tarantula 1:28 #9 Snake 2:09 #8 Goldfish 2:54 #7 Hamster 3:31 The list so far 3:52 #6 Rabbit 4:42 #5 Horse 5:28 #4 Parrot 6:05 #3 Rat 6:45 Where the list stands 7:02 #2 Cat 8:13 #1 Dog SOURCES Tarantula senses (trichobothria): Foelix, R. F. (2011). Biology of Spiders, 3rd ed. Oxford University Press. Snake infrared pits: Bullock & Diecke (1956), Journal of Physiology — https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.1956.sp005624 Gracheva et al. (2010), Nature — https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08943 Goldfish memory: Gee, Stephenson & Wright (1994), Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior — https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.1994.62-1 Archerfish face recognition: Newport et al. (2016), Scientific Reports — https://www.nature.com/articles/srep27523 Syrian hamsters live alone: RSPCA — https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/rodents/hamsters/company Rabbit "trancing" is a fear response: McBride et al. (2006), Proceedings of the VDWE International Congress on Companion Animal Behaviour and Welfare, pp. 135–137 Horses read human faces: Smith et al. (2016), Biology Letters — https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0907 Horses remember an angry face: Proops et al. (2018), Current Biology — https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30364-6 Parrots treating owners as mates (avian vets): VCA Animal Hospitals, "Sexual Behavior in Birds" (Rich & Axelson, DVM) — https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/sexual-behavior-in-birds Grey parrot lifespan: Animal Diversity Web — https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Psittacus_erithacus/ Rat "laughter": Panksepp & Burgdorf (2000), Behavioural Brain Research — https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-4328(00)00238-2 Ishiyama & Brecht (2016), Science — https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5114 Rats free trapped cage-mates: Ben-Ami Bartal, Decety & Mason (2011), Science — https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1210789 Cat attachment: Vitale, Behnke & Udell (2019), Current Biology — https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)31086-3 Cats recognize their owner's voice: Saito & Shinozuka (2013), Animal Cognition — https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-013-0620-4 Dog secure-base effect: Horn, Huber & Range (2013), PLOS ONE — https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065296 Dog brain and the owner's scent: Berns, Brooks & Spivak (2015), Behavioural Processes — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2014.02.011 Oxytocin gaze loop: Nagasawa et al. (2015), Science — https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1261022 The "alpha wolf" myth: Mech (1999), Canadian Journal of Zoology — https://doi.org/10.1139/z99-099 Occam — real animal science, explained with simple drawings. Subscribe for the next one. #animals #pets #animalfacts