Top 10 Animals Known to Show Emotions or Feelings

An emotion is a feeling such as happiness, love, fear, anger, or hatred, which can be caused by the situation that you are in or the people you are with.

Just like man, animals also show emotions and express feelings to man and/or other animals.

Feel free to vote, comment, and add other items to the list!
The Top Ten
1 Dogs The dog or domestic dog (Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated descendant of the wolf, and is characterized by an upturning tail. The dog is derived from an ancient, extinct wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. The dog was the first species to be domesticated,... read more

10000% They are the best at making you feel better, and you can just tell them everything. They don't talk back. They just listen. The worst thing in life is to have problems and no one to talk to about it. Dogs are very smart, and they're also so cute!

These loyal creatures use their tails and barks to express their feelings. They become more emotional when domesticated.

Well, duh, the iconic "three-tone sad pant."

2 Elephants Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea, extinct relatives include mammoths... read more

Elephants have the largest brains among all land animals and tend to be more intelligent than other predators, including "King Lion." They express their emotions through body language, give and receive love, and also form strong relationships with humans. They are also known to grieve when their loved ones die.

3 Dolphins A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the brackish dolphins), and the extinct Lipotidae (baiji or Chinese... read more

Dolphins are also intelligent mammals that live in the sea. They are known to smile when happy and are very friendly toward humans. They also become sad when another dolphin dies.

Dolphins are good at making you happy and smile, especially when you're having a bad day.

4 Cats The cat (Felis catus) is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal.
It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is often referred to as the domestic cat to distinguish it from the wild members of the family. A cat can either be a house cat, a farm cat or a feral cat; the latter... read more

Tip for cats: tail wagging does NOT mean happiness. For cats, that usually means they're annoyed. A tail sticking directly up means they are happy (or hunting).

Once domesticated, they become more attached to humans. They show emotions through body language, such as wagging tails to indicate aggressiveness or a need for space.

5 Birds

Birds show loyalty to their owners. They are also intelligent and emotional, though not all birds show emotion.

6 Horses The horse is an odd-toed, hoofed mammal of the taxonomic family Equidae whose sole major subspecies (Equus ferus caballus) is a domesticate, although wild subspecies have survived into the modern period. All subspecies, including the two extant ones, descend from the Pleistocene Equus ferus. The horse... read more

Horses are just so mystical and cool-looking, and they're great at making you stop, look, and smile. For example, when you're driving by them in a car, you look out and "boom," you're smiling.

As they are being domesticated and used as a means of transportation, they have built a strong bond with humans. They can indicate if they are angry, happy, or too tired to run.

7 Monkeys Monkeys are haplorhine primates, a paraphyletic group generally possessing tails and consisting of approximately 260 known living species.

Monkeys are intelligent, humorous, playful, and romantic creatures. They can fall in love and can also tell jokes. Additionally, they grieve when their loved ones die.

8 Honey Bees

Surprisingly, honey bees also express feelings and are known to show optimism.

9 Rats Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus.

Rats show emotions through chirps, squeaks, and hissing. Surprisingly, they can also cry tears when they are sad, upset, stressed, or sick.

10 Wolves The wolf (Canis lupus), also known as the gray or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. Over thirty subspecies of Canis lupus have been recognized, with gray wolves comprising the wild subspecies. As the largest extant member of the Canidae family, the wolf is distinguished... read more

Wolves are my spirit animal, and I think I have a pretty good spirit. I'm kind and very thoughtful, plus I love all food and all animals. Wolves are great at showing emotion and conveying how they are feeling.

The Contenders
11 Ants Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera.
12 Lions The lion (Panthera leo) is a large cat of the genus Panthera native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body, short, rounded head, round ears, and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult male lions are larger than females and have a prominent mane. It is... read more

Lions are very powerful and cool-looking.

13 Bears Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern Hemisphere and partially in the Southern Hemisphere. Bears... read more
14 Tigers The tiger (Panthera tigris) is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus Panthera. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ungulates such as deer and wild boar. It is territorial and generally... read more

Like all cats, tigers are very playful and so pretty.

15 Chimpanzees Chimpanzees are primates of the genus Pan which consists of the common chimpanzee and the bonobo. They are a part of the tribe Hominini, which also includes humans, and the family Hominidae where all great apes are included. Like their closest living relatives the modern humans, chimpanzees are social... read more
16 Cows Cattle (Bos taurus) are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus Bos. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult males are referred to as bulls... read more

Cows can also feel empathy and sympathy, as they become sad when abused or abandoned by their owners. They also grieve when their loved ones die.

17 Orangutans Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus Pongo, orangutans were originally considered to be one species... read more
18 Fish
19 Bonobo
20 Scorpions
21 Sheep The sheep is a quadrupedal, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates.
22 Rabbits Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). Oryctolagus cuniculus includes the European rabbit species and its descendants, the world's 305 breeds of domestic rabbit... read more
23 Rhinoceroses A rhinoceros, commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species of the superfamily Rhinocerotoidea.) Two of the extant species are... read more
24 Hippopotamuses The common hippopotamus, or hippo, is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus.
25 Hamsters Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 25 species, classified in six or seven genera.
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