Has your dog ever seemed to get you back for something you did? What about crows that harass people who have wronged them? Tales of animal vengeance have circulated for ages, but do beasts actually plot payback?
If you’re short on time, here’s the quick answer: While animals lack human-level planning and forethought, some species like crows and chimpanzees display behaviors that look suspiciously like vengeance. The motives remain difficult to prove conclusively.
In this nearly 3000 word article, we’ll explore intriguing cases of animals apparently seeking retribution against humans or other animals. We’ll analyze the evidence and see how plausible true vengeance is vs. simpler explanations of learned associations or coincidence.
Potential examples range from clever octopuses to temperamental elephants.
What Would Count as Vengeance in Animals?
Planning and forethought required
True vengeance would require animals to plan retaliation and consciously harbor resentment toward a specific offender (an individual who previously wronged them). This level of forethought and intentionality likely exists only in species closely related to humans, such as chimpanzees or perhaps elephants.
Still, most examples of seeming “payback” behaviors in animals probably arise from instinct rather than from a thought-out desire for retribution.
Payback for specific past wrongs
Retaliating against a specific animal that previously harmed or aggrieved an individual could signal vengeance. For instance, studies show that certain species of cleaner fish avoid and withhold co-operation from individual “client” fish that they previously observed cheating them.
Such targeted behaviors show that these cleaner fish remember specific “defectors.” However, lacking complex emotions, they probably do not actually feel a desire for vengeance or justice.
Targeted retaliation
Some disturbing anecdotes depict acts of violence by captive apes against individual human handlers who abused them. One example is the chimpanzee named Travis, who viciously attacked a woman that taunted him in the past.
While shocking, experts ascribe these aggressive outbursts to fear or impulsive rage rather than calculated vengeance planned to “get even” with former tormentors.
Case Studies of Potential Animal Vengeance
Crows bearing grudges
Research by the University of Washington in 2011 found that crows can remember human faces associated with threatening behavior. In an experiment, some people captured and handled wild crows while wearing distinct masks.
The crows learned to associate those masks with danger and would later dive-bomb those same people wearing them.
This ability to hold a grudge against specific humans suggests highly advanced cognitive skills in crows. Some researchers see it as evidence of complex thought processes that may include the desire for vengeance.
Chimpanzee turf wars
Teams of chimpanzees violently compete for territory in Ivory Coast’s Tai Forest, reports say. Neighboring groups patrol border areas and launch deadly raids, with attacking chimps brutally biting and pounding their victims to death.
Experts say the violence goes beyond protecting resources to deliberate payback attacks. “It’s clear that some attacks are in retaliation for previous killings,” says primatologist Jill Pruetz.
Problematic primates at zoos
Zoos occasionally report primates planning and carrying out apparent vengeance against humans who have angered them. In a 2005 case, a gorilla at a Rotterdam zoo gathered up rocks and other items over 15 minutes to angrily hurl at visitors after one threw something at him.
Some animal experts caution that what looks like payback are often simply instinctive stress-based reactions by disturbed captive primates. However, others suggest advanced cognition and emotional capability in apes lends credibility to vengeance theories.
Temperamental elephants
Some Asian elephant attacks on villages seem motivated by vengeance instead of basic needs or self-defense, one 2012 study found:
| Vengeance attacks | 22% |
| Other types | 78% |
Elephants appear capable of holding grudges over harm to their herd or oneself. One dramatic case involved a bull elephant waiting four years to gore the villager who shot his mother.
Crafty octopuses
Octopuses and other cephalopods display complex behaviors suggesting advanced intelligence on par with many mammals and birds, according to some biologists. While hard proof is lacking, some octopus activity such as squirting water or hurling debris point to deliberate payback.
“Lab experiments show they can anticipate future events and plan activities to achieve goals,” says marine scientist Jennifer Mather. “This hints at a possible capacity for vengeance or other emotionally-driven acts.”
The Difficulty of Proving Motives
Determining whether an animal intentionally seeks vengeance can be extremely challenging. Unlike humans, animals cannot explicitly state their motives and thought processes. As a result, interpreting an animal’s behavior requires a certain amount of subjective interpretation.
There are several factors that make conclusively identifying vengeance in animals difficult:
- Animals may act out of instinct rather than calculated planning. For example, an animal that attacks a human after being harmed may simply be responding reflexively to a perceived threat, rather than acting out of a desire for retribution.
- Animal cognition is vastly different from human cognition. We cannot assume animals experience emotions and motivations identically to humans.
- The context and sequence of events must be carefully analyzed. An act that appears retaliatory may simply be coincidental.
- There are often multiple plausible explanations for an animal’s actions besides vengeance.
- The capacity for complex emotions like vengeance likely varies greatly between species based on cognitive abilities.
Scientists aim to avoid anthropomorphizing animal behavior by considering simpler explanations first. But the possibility of vengeance can’t be ruled out entirely, especially in intelligent species like elephants, dolphins and primates.
Controlled experiments are needed to better understand how animals perceive harm and if they act on grudges.
In most alleged cases of animal vengeance, the true motivations remain ambiguous. While some examples appear convincing to casual observers, proving an animal’s thought process is virtually impossible. Any conclusions require caution to avoid projecting human qualities onto animals.
But with careful analysis, we can gain insights into how other species experience emotions and social behaviors.
Alternate Explanations
Learned negative associations
Many apparent acts of animal vengeance may simply be the result of learned negative associations. For example, if a dog has been mistreated by a particular person, it may subsequently act aggressively towards that individual due to fear or anxiety triggered by their presence.
This reaction would not constitute revenge in a conscious sense, but rather an instinctive response conditioned by past experiences.
Studies have shown that animals like crows and chimpanzees can hold grudges and pass on negative attitudes about certain humans to other members of their group. However, while sophisticated, this behavior likely arises from innate tendencies to mistrust threats and warn others rather than a calculated payback scheme.
Anthropomorphism and misinterpreted behaviors
In some cases, animal behaviors that appear vengeful to human observers may simply be misinterpreted due to anthropomorphism. We often project human emotions and motivations onto animals, reading intention and premeditation into actions that actually have simpler explanations.
For instance, if a horse bucks off a rider who whipped it too hard, we may ascribe feelings of resentment and retribution. More likely, though, the horse was simply exhibiting a fearful/pain response without any broader goal of punishing its rider’s past actions.
Our tendency to anthropomorphize makes it tempting to see calculated vengeance in behaviors that originate from instinct, not intelligent planning. Controlled studies are needed to differentiate between these possibilities.
Random coincidence
In other situations, timing may create the illusion of animal vengeance when events are actually just random coincidence. For example, if a farmer routinely scolds his rooster for crowing and one day finds the rooster injured, it may seem like punishment.
In reality, though, the injury could easily have occurred independently from the scolding incidents.
To accurately determine if an animal is seeking vengeance, a clear pattern of repeated retaliatory behaviors in response to specific mistreatment would need to be demonstrated. Isolated instances or correlations do not provide compelling evidence on their own given other potential explanations.
Controlled experiments and careful observation over time and across contexts would be necessary to confirm that animals can truly understand past wrongs and plan targeted retaliation as humans understand those concepts.
Conclusion
While we may never know if animals truly feel vengeful, some display uncanny behavior that appears retaliatory. The cases remaining unexplained enough to avoid dismissing them outright.
With improved technology and deeper study of animal cognition, perhaps more definitive answers await on whether any species do in fact lay plans for targeted, considerate payback against transgressors.
For now, we must ponder if purported cases emerge from simpler explanations or something more calculating from clever animal minds.
