Kingdom of Play by David Toomey

Author:David Toomey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2024-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

“I Strongly Suspect That Ferrets Dream”

Since scientists cannot see animal dreams, they cannot study them directly. They can, however, study animal dreaming by observing a dream’s outward manifestation: a dream-enacting behavior. A sleeping dog may move its legs as if it were running and produce a hoarse, half-suppressed bark. In The Passions of Animals, Edward Thompson observed, “When the impressions of the dream assume a particularly vigorous and distinct character, they affect the slumbering voice and limbs, and thus prove most satisfactorily and clearly that animals really do dream.”4 He alluded to accounts of dreaming behavior in horses, elephants, and several species of birds—among them storks, canaries, and eagles. Darwin, drawing on his own observations and those of others, concluded, “Probably all the higher animals… have vivid dreams, and this is shewn by their movements and voice.”5 And Romanes declared most memorably, “I strongly suspect that ferrets dream.”6 But exactly what are dogs, horses, canaries, and ferrets dreaming about? To learn what humans dream, researchers have traditionally relied on a report from the dreamer upon waking, a practice not feasible with subjects unable to provide such a report. But there may be other ways.

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