Communicating with Wild Animals: Respecting Their Perspective
People often assume that wild animals think and feel very differently from domestic animals. While their lives are certainly different, one of the most striking things about communicating with wild animals is how clear they are about who they are and how they choose to live. Wild animals do not see themselves as needing to be rescued, managed, entertained, or protected from every challenge they face. Their lives are built around survival, adaptation, family groups, territory, migration, and responding to the natural world around them. Many of the concerns that occupy human minds simply do not exist in their reality. One of the biggest mistakes people make when communicating with wild animals is viewing them through a human lens. We often project our own emotions onto them. We may see a wild animal alone and assume it is lonely. We may see an animal facing a difficult situation and assume it feels helpless. However, wild animals frequently experience their lives very differently from ho...