Can meerkats copy human emotions? Nottingham Trent university launch study

Researchers at Nottingham Trent University are investigating whether meerkats can detect emotions such as happiness, sadness or anger from people.

Animal behaviour scientists will be monitoring the behaviour and interactions of meerkats both with zookeepers who they see regularly, and with zoo visitors who they are unfamiliar with.

They are keen to see how the animals react to different people and whether they demonstrate empathy by mirroring their emotions.

Experts already believe that domesticated animals such cats, dogs and horses are able to understand how people feel, but less is known about wild animals housed in zoos.

It aims to find out the potential impact people have on zoo animals, following a post pandemic study between Nottingham Trent University and Twycross Zoo.

Research has previously shown that animal-visitor interactions can be enriching and stimulating for zoo animals, but the worldwide closures of zoos during the pandemic stopped all interactions. Meerkats had mixed behavioural responses to the pandemic including animals ‘hiding’ from staff due to a lack of people around their enclosures and calling to keepers to attract attention.

Nottingham Trent University has received funding from the Leverhulme Trust for the three-year project.

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