by Joel Pitney
Do animals have souls?
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Tucked inside this question’s simple syntax is a whole herd of very big, very intriguing and quite elusive questions. Such as, Is there a soul? And if so, how do we define it? What is it made of, and what is its purpose? Do all sentient beings have one—humans and animals alike?
Ontological questions such as these pose particularly fascinating challenges, and to tackle this one, EnlightenNext‘s Ross Robertson interviewed Marc Bekoff, biology professor, fellow of the Animal Behavior Society, and regional coordinator for Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots program. Bekoff, the author of books with titles like, How Animals Talk, Animal Passions and Beastly Virtues, and the three-volume, Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior, is a dedicated scientist as well as a passionate advocate, an animal biologist, and an ardent believer in the rich inner life of our fellow creatures.
Bekoff’s ability to blend scientific knowledge with intuitive understanding helps to shed light on the mysterious nature of animals’ inner lives. Having closely observed elephants, coyotes, wolves, and primates, both in captivity and in the wild, Bekoff believes he has witnessed distinct expressions of altruism, telepathy, empathy, sympathy, and the full range of emotional and social experience usually considered to be found only in members of our own species. If animals truly possess many—or all—of the fundamental traits and capacities we do, the implications for our own identity and for the way we relate to all of life’s creation are profound indeed.
A few years ago, in 2004, I wrote an article called 
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