Are humans the only social animals capable of loving others? Are other animals incapable of love? Or are there any other animals who have the capacity for love? Studies of the biological evolution of love bring many questions of this kind.
People tend to believe that being able to love means having the feelings and emotions of love, including emotional attraction, empathy, compassion, care, and willingness to invest in another person. Love implies a psychological capacity to be emotionally available and responsive to others’ needs and feelings. The concept of love can imply many other emotional experiences, expressions, and behaviors that people associate with love. Love is a many-splendored thing.
Who Were the First Animals Capable of Love?
What is the capacity for love in viruses, microbes, lizards, fish, snails, butterflies, and spiders? Some scholars assert that parental love is nonexistent in these species (e.g., Lampert, 1997; Ringler et al., 2023; Vitt & Caldwell, 2013).
For instance, Ada Lampert (1997) suggested that these creatures are incapable of love because they are cold-blooded. They are probably too primitive to experience love for their little ones. Lampert believes that cold blood is incompatible with warm feelings and emotions of love. The author asserts that the capability to love requires warm blood.
Some researchers suggested that warm-blooded mammals were probably the earliest species capable of love and attachment towards their young (Araújo et al., 2022; Bard, 2002; Bell, 2001; Broad, Curley, & Keverne, 2006; Fisher, 1998; Fleming & Li, 2002; Lampert, 1997; Rosenblatt, 2013). Among such mammals are dolphins, polar bears, deer, cows, lions, elephants, meerkats, orangutans, and gorillas. The maternal and parental behaviors of these animals manifest dedicated nurturing and the formation of strong, lasting bonds. Thus, mammals—animals with warm blood—became the first creatures in biological evolution capable of love.
For example, Ada Lampert believes that warm blood brings warm feelings, while warm feelings are the feelings of love. Mammals were the first animals capable of love because they needed each other’s warmth. They grouped together to maintain their warm body temperatures.
“Warm blood causes warm feelings, and warm blood is a very new “invention” of evolution, being only about 150 million years old. It was brought into the world by the mammals, the last family to appear on earth and to which we belong” (Lampert, 1997, p. 17).
The Caring Origins of Mammalian Love
For the young infant, body warmth was essential for survival. Parents, and mothers in particular, provided this vital warmth to their young, protecting them from cold. Just born and emerging into the world, the young ones were unable to care for themselves. Mothers were the first parents to help the little ones who couldn’t cope alone.
According to Ada Lampert, parental care involving warming, feeding, and protecting the young was the first prototype of love that emerged in biological evolution. The parents cared for their young ones.
“The mother hugs the newborn close to her body, thus performing the two functions essential to preserving its life: protection and nutrition. In cuddling the newborn, she shields it from the dangers that threaten it, notably the cold and predators. At the same time, she nourishes it” (Lampert, 1997, p. 19).
Warm Feelings and Expressions of Love
During the evolutionary transition from egg-laying reptiles to suckling mothers, hugging evolved as an expression of caring motherly love:
“Mothers kept the eggs inside their bodies for longer periods of time, before “ley laid them, as a sort of ongoing incubation, with the fetus developing in improved, warmer, more protected internal conditions rather than in harsh external conditions.” (Lampert, 1997, p. 19).
The young baby being born still needed warmth to maintain his or her own body heat. Therefore, the baby clung to its mother’s belly, where her glands produce milk—a sweaty, enriched, and high-energy fluid. Being born helpless, the baby needed to be physically close to the mother to get warmth, nutrition, and protection.
The evolution of a mammalian mother’s body, which provides warmth and nursing, along with her emotions of concern, care, and attachment, has also occurred. All these feelings motivate her motherly behavior. Their physical proximity is essential for all this behavior.
Motivation to care for her infant induced the new motherly emotions and behaviors. After giving birth, mammalian mothers crouch over the babies and start licking their little ones frequently. They carry them around in their teeth, on their belly, or on their back. If one of them dares to leave the nest, they immediately bring it back. Mammalian mothers do care, and they enjoy caring:
“To watch the child eat is a joy; to watch it sleep is to dissolve in pleasure. To think of any threat to the little one’s well-being gives rise to deep fear; to know that the threat is over brings forth deep relief.” (Lampert, 1997, p. 21).
Mammalians Were the First Animals in Evolution to Become Capable of Love
Mammalians were the first animals in evolution who became emotionally sensitive to their helpless infants and involved in caring for others. They set the cradle for the evolution of love as the dependence of every individual on proximity, belonging, and being cuddled.
Close physical contact between infants and their mothers lasts weeks in small mammals, months in large mammals, and years in monkeys. Chimpanzees, our closest relatives, maintain close physical contact with their young for at least six years (Lampert, 1997).
The Bodily Warming and Touching Love
Love first emerged as loving warmth and touch and only later evolved into a diverse cluster of loving feelings and behaviors. In biological evolution, this kind of love developed first in the mammalian relationship between mother and infant. The physiological, neural, and psychological mechanisms of love evolved from the need for physical proximity and physical touch.
Physical contact and touch are important features of mammalian life and love. Monkeys spend hours grooming each other. Humans also long for touch. They feel good when they feel attached, and they feel bad when they miss these feelings. Pure physical touch is frequently more important than the words people say to each other.
References
Araújo, R., David, R., Benoit, J., Lungmus, J. K., Stoessel, A., Barrett, P. M., … & Angielczyk, K. D. (2022). Inner ear biomechanics reveals a Late Triassic origin for mammalian endothermy. Nature, 607(7920), 726-731.
Bard, K. (2002). Primate parenting. In M. H. Bornstein, (Ed). Handbook of parenting: Volume 2. Biology and ecology of parenting Handbook of parenting (pp. 99-140). Psychology Press.
Bell, D. C. (2001). Evolution of parental caregiving. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5(3), 216-229.
Broad, K. D., Curley, J. P., & Keverne, E. B. (2006). Mother–infant bonding and the evolution of mammalian social relationships. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 361(1476), 2199-2214.
Fisher, H. (1998). Lust, attraction, and attachment in mammalian reproduction. Human Nature 9, 23–52.
Fleming, A. S., & Li, M. (2002). Psychobiology of maternal behavior and its early determinants in nonhuman mammals. In M. H. Bornstein, (Ed). Handbook of parenting: Volume 2. Biology and ecology of parenting Handbook of parenting (pp. 61-97). Psychology Press.
Lampert, A. (1997). The evolution of love. Praeger.
Ringler, E., Rojas, B., Stynoski, J. L., & Schulte, L. M. (2023). What amphibians can teach us about the evolution of parental care. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 54(1), 43-62.
Rosenblatt, J. S. (2013). Hormonal bases of parenting in mammals. In M. H. Bornstein, (Ed). Handbook of parenting: Volume 2 Biology and ecology of parenting Handbook of parenting (pp. 31-60). Psychology Press.
Vitt, L. J., & Caldwell, J. P. (2013). Herpetology: an introductory biology of amphibians and reptiles. Academic press.