Else Poulsen

Biological scientist and bear expert Else Poulsen reveals a few mysteries about the emotional characters she describes in her book Smiling Bears.

Do bears actually smile?

Yes, they do. It’s often difficult to see their smile because they have such big noses and their heads hang over their mouths. Bears smile—for bear reasons—when they are self-satisfied. I have observed bears smile as a greeting when I or other bears show up, when I give them favorite treats, when they are playing or are watching others play, or simply when they are relaxing and soaking up the sun.

Do bears really have emotions?

Yes, we can assume that bears have a wide and complex range of emotion from happiness, gratitude, and joy to jealousy, sadness, and loss that they – like humans - express physically through facial expression, body and verbal language. For example; an annoyed bear may hang his head, form a point with his upper lip, fur¬row his brow and stare at you.

How do bears communicate?

Bears use behavior, facial expression, body and vocal language to communicate just like humans. They can make a sound that coupled with body language can mean one or a number of things – like a word. Several sounds can be strung together to give further meaning – like a sentence. Nature clearly selects for cross-species communication. A deer that doesn’t understand what a couple of wolves are doing when they are exhibiting stalking behavior and vocals is a dead deer. We share some of our body language with bears. For instance, when a bear wants something right here, right now he will pick up his front foot and pad it on the ground once or several times. If you want your pet dog to come and sit next to you on the couch – you will pat the seat next to you with your hand while calling your pet’s name. Ever wonder why you do that?

You gave polar bears Prozac! Why?

I was working with Dr. Cam Teskey—a neuroscientist from the University of Calgary. We came to the understanding that our pacing polar bear, Snowball, had a disorder very similar to human obsessive-com¬pulsive disorder, likely brought on by the fact that she had been living in a cement pit exhibit, which we now understood to be a highly sensory-deprived environment. We added natural bear furniture like woodchips substrate, an outdoor den full of bedding material like straw and branches, huge trees trunks to climb and boulders in the pool to hide live fish that she could hunt. We also developed an enrichment program for her so there were things to do all day long if she chose to take part. But none of these things ‘cured’ her pacing habit. She needed medical assistance and we gave her Prozac, which is usually prescribed for human OCD sufferers. Snowball responded extremely well and stopped her pacing habit. She replaced that behavior with normal bear behaviors such as searching for food and nest-building. Our work was successful and was pub¬lished internationally in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association JAVMA.

Isn’t that anthropomorphizing – putting human feelings onto animals?

Historically, humans have supposed that only we have emotions because an emotion is such a difficult thing to prove scientifically. But humans share all their other attributes with animals such as anatomy, social structure, and communication that it is unrealistic to think that emotions are somehow an exception to the rule. While it is not yet within our realm to know what it feels like to be a bear, it isn’t within our realm to know what it feels like to be your human neighbor either.