麻豆传媒

Jonathan Balcombe鈥檚 The Exultant Ark is an exploration of the nascent research into animal pleasure, replete with emotive photographs

AS ANIMAL behaviourist Jonathan Balcombe sees it, too often the animal kingdom is portrayed solely as a realm of dire and perpetual struggle for survival. He argues that observations of playfulness or expressions of pleasure by non-human creatures of all stripes, feathers and fins are depicted as nothing more than evolutionary adaptation.

The Exultant Ark, his pictorial exploration of pleasure among creatures from primate to porpoise, challenges this idea. It intersperses glorious images of animals preening, grooming and gallivanting with snippets of studies suggesting such behaviours belie an overly utilitarian interpretation.

Sleepy, full-bellied kittens snuggling up to their mothers, dozing sea otters drifting on their backs with linked paws, frolicking alpine ibex 鈥� Balcombe revels in images that convey intimacy, comfort and even love, terms usually reserved for humans. A key point for Balcombe, though, is that we must go beyond anthropomorphism to get to the root of what non-human animals feel.

Balcombe laments the fact that scientific understanding of animal pleasure remains in its infancy, but cobbles together anecdotes and preliminary research to raise questions about animals鈥� experience. For instance, in highlighting the relationship between hippos and the fish that scrounge between their toes and teeth, he explores its potential interpretation as a mutually enjoyable experience.

Also up for discussion is where we draw the line between sentient and insentient beings. In this case, he points to research suggesting that prawns exhibit signs of discomfort after their antennae are exposed to acid, which challenges the idea that invertebrates do not experience pain.

Indeed, though The Exultant Ark is primarily a celebration of pleasure in the animal kingdom, Balcombe does not shy away from the implications of sizing up such feelings. In a pointed conclusion to the book he says that, despite the tremendous power humans wield over other animals, throughout the history of our species 鈥渨e have excluded them from our circle of moral concern鈥�.

What determines whether we grant fellow creatures respect and compassion is their ability to feel, and as our understanding of this capacity evolves so too should our relationship with animals, Balcombe stresses. 鈥淲herever we may decide to draw our imaginary lines,鈥� he writes, 鈥渨e should draw them in pencil.鈥�