Even in the absence of a sufficient database, I can't imagine that the extent of psychopathologies among wild animals comes close to how rampant PTSD and other disorders are among captive animals whose lives have been highly compromised by humans by being forced to live in highly unnatural conditions in unnatural social groups.There's no evidence wild animals torment and torture one another to the extent that humans torment and torture one another and members of other species. I encourage field workers to look for this and to report instances of psychological trauma. So, my guess is yes, wild animals do indeed suffer from PTSD and other psychological disorders under natural conditions and that as time goes on we will learn more about the extent of these maladies. Treating PTSD at the Anatomic Source: The Amygdalaīecause wild animals don't get the medical care to which our companion animals are privy, those who suffer from extreme and debilitating psychological disorders simply die, as do those who suffer serious physical injuries and illness. It's not all that surprising that captive animals show severe signs of stress and depression given how their lives are reprehensibly and severely compromised. I'm sure when similar research is conducted on other animals we'll discover the same trends. It's also been suggested that captivity drives killer whales crazy. The same goes for elephants abused in circuses where they are treated incredibly harshly (egregiously and inhumanely "broken") so they will perform unnatural tricks and for those kept in tiny cages in zoos absent social companions and a physical environment where they can do the things their wild relatives routinely do (see note 1 below). The term feral applies to any animal that was once domesticated or whose ancestors were domesticated but has since been loosed into the wild and lost its sense of domestication. Hope Ferdowsian and her colleagues has clearly shown that captive chimpanzees display behavior patterns similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. The key difference in defining a specific one is the use of the terms feral and wild, which have two distinct meanings. We didn't have enough data to study in any detail how other pack members interacted with these individuals but nothing stuck out as being unusual.Ĭurrently, we're really not much closer to knowing much about wild animals but it's clear captive animals do indeed suffer a wide range of psychological disorders including PTSD.
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