Studying the Bond Close-Up
Some local wildlife specialists took interest in studying this connection, being mesmerized by the behavioral orientation it represented. They watched the pair, recorded the interactions, and accounted for the behavior of the monkey towards the puppy. The experts believed that this relationship would provide great insight into animal empathy and inter-species caregiving.
What they found was incredible. The monkey behaved in a way reserved for its own kind-to groom, care for, and protect the puppy. The caregiving behavior was both rare and profound in this case; it told us that the monkey did not just look at the puppy as a new curiosity, but as somebody to whom it took on responsibility-the role of a carer, sort of like a parent.
This discovery attracted the interest of the scientists to a great extent. They viewed it as a rare chance to learn about the emotional involvement of animals in their relationships and especially those that overlap species. The exploration of the relationship in this study would result in gaining precious knowledge on interspecies companionship, thus unveiling new dimensions of animal psychology.
