Umwelt

In animal behavior, umwelt roughly means the perspective or experience of another organism.

So often we see the world how we see it and forget to look at how others see it. It’s easier to understand when placing yourself in the shoes of another person, but for another species, the world view drastically changes. Other species perceive objects as different sizes, other species have different abilities, different senses, rely on different resources, and have different needs. Here is an example of looking through another species perspective:

POV: You just got a naked mole rat and are trying to get him to walk into your hands willingly. He does it when you are really close to him but once you take a step back he goes the wrong direction and it takes him a really long time to crawl into your hands. Seeing this through a human perspective can leave you confused. If you think of it in the mole rat’s eyes you will realize that naked mole rat’s actually have very very poor eyesight. While you can see that your hands only moved back a bit, he cannot. They rely on smell, hearing, and touch. This is why he could crawl into your hands when you were close because his whiskers were close enough to touch you but once you move he didn’t know where you were. To get him to know where you are farther away, try to always have a certain smell or making a certain noise so he associates that with you and can find you from further away.

Today I challenge you to go out and think about a situation from another species perspective. This is a great thing to practice when you ever have a problem communicating with your pets,

when you’re having a problem with a wild animal that you’re trying to prevent, or in a ton of other situations. Hope this thought exercise helps you understand to animals around you better.

For more visit: https://www.betterrelwanimals.com/

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