What do you think animals think about sharing the planet with humans

In case you might have missed one, here is a list of the last two decades:

Wild London (2026)
A Gorilla Story (2026)
Ocean (2025)
Secret Lives of Orangutans (2024) Mammals (2024)
Asia (2024)
Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster (2024)
Wonder of Song (2022)
Prehistoric Planet (2022)
A Perfect Planet (2021)
Life in Colour (2021)
Breaking Boundaries (2021)
A Life on Our Planet (2020)
Extinction: The Facts (2020)
Seven Worlds, One Planet (2019).
Dynasties (2018)
Blue Planet II (2017)
Planet Earth II (2016)
The Hunt (2015)
Life Story (2014)
Africa (2013)
Frozen Planet (2011)
First Life (2010)
Life (2009)
Life in Cold Blood (2008)
Planet Earth (2006).

A Gorilla Story is my favorite but I have yet to see Wild London.

Interesting comment, Davis49 I hadnt really thought about all of the animals that used to poplate the British Isles.

Macaydia

Just released: "A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough". 2026.

I was very moved by this. Have you seen this? In my humble opinion, it is his best film.

David says, there is something in the eyes of the gorilla that is not just deep but “fills me with a sense of wonder. And fear. But not a fear of them. A fear that I, we........ may have missed something."

Going right back to the OP.

Animals don't think in that way, humans are just another animal competing for territory or food, we kill the ones we need to for food or space in exactly the same way that other animals do, they just don't have a conscience about it.

Population in Africa is growing so they kill the lions because they are dangerous and elephants because they destroy everything. So now those are now almost all confined to national parks, where over population means they have to be culled in many places. In the UK we exterminated all the wild animals that competed with us centuries ago, now we just share with the ones we like.

Who came first us or them?

We are just squatters really. And act as though we are.By ruining their beautiful home
home.



and they should evict us from their planet.

Macaydia

Speaking of speaking, without our developed languages and written word, humans might not be the King of the Beasts. Even with thought.

Still, we are not as intelligent as an octopus.

I would have an Octopus in charge any day than most politicians.
They are a amazingly intelligent and would get given AI a run for it's money.
🐙👌

Caleo

The beasts are very wise,
Their mouths are clean of lies,
They talk one to the other,
Bullock to bullock brothers
Resting after their labors,
Each in stall with his neighbors,
But man with goad and whip,
Breaks up their fellowship,
Shouts in their silky ears
Filling their soul with fears.
When he has plowed the land,
He says: “they understand.”
But the beasts in stall together,
Freed from the yoke and tether,
Say as the torn flank smoke:
“Nay, ’twas the whip that spoke.”
(Rudyard Kipling, The Beasts are Very Wise)
~~~~~

That must be from a US edition, or it’d be ‘labours’, ‘neighbours’ and ‘plough’.

(Sorry, my not so inner pedant won’t always be silenced!)

edited : adapts and harmonises

mum2three

God made a big mistake when he put humans on this planet. He should have chosen somewhere where we were not the dominant species.
The rest of nature all fits together very neatly. We are the odd ones out, unless we live in harmony with nature.

The human species right now is a destructive infestation, However, unlike other animals, the human animal can change its cultural practices and beliefs so that it adapts.

It's the survival instinct we all have that drives us to enterprise so that our family (herd) can survive longer. Also on a larger scale, empires, states and religions compete with each other for dominance. Not only survival we have the pleasure drive that animals don't have, the need for enjoyment, travel, culture, sport, sex for pleasure not just reproduction.
Us smart apes now have the means now to destroy the planet but we can't control it, maybe we're not so smart after all

mum2three

God made a big mistake when he put humans on this planet. He should have chosen somewhere where we were not the dominant species.
The rest of nature all fits together very neatly. We are the odd ones out, unless we live in harmony with nature.

We evolved.
We weren't put here.

*mum2three

God made a big mistake when he put humans on this planet. He should have chosen somewhere where we were not the dominant species.
The rest of nature all fits together very neatly. We are the odd ones out, unless we live in harmony with nature.*

We are not the odd ones out - we ARE nature, in the same way as all animals and plants are.

The rest of nature fits together very neatly by killing each other and destroying habitats for their own survival (e.g. beavers, elephants, deer).

So - no different from us. We just have bigger brains than most (as far as we are aware to date) and are able to apply more technology to our primal urge to develop the survival strategies in the same way as the whole of nature.

Taking actions to survive is what all animals do - human and all other species.

It disturbs me to read this ingrained mindset that humankind is inherently evil and all other species are inherently good. We have well and truly absorbed the original sin myth.

As I said upthread we are in fact the only species that has any regard at all for what our survival strategies might do to other plants and animals.

mum2three

God made a big mistake when he put humans on this planet. He should have chosen somewhere where we were not the dominant species.
The rest of nature all fits together very neatly. We are the odd ones out, unless we live in harmony with nature.

Humans can have greed. Do other mammals have greed as well or do they only take from nature what is absolutely necessary for their families' survival?

Yes, I have unfortunately. I live in mid Wales. I think you missed the point I was making though, which is that dogs have learned to benefit from humans. I didn’t say anything about their wild side being suppressed?

Casdon

Dogs will seek an easy life David49, even street dogs will always prefer somebody else to feed and care for them rather than continue with that life. Wolves have not had human contact, so are wild.

You haven't seen a pack of 3 dogs attacking a sheep flock, just ordinary domestic pooches.
In general they are lazy as you say but don't rely on it, we've had terriers that were determined hunters, squirrels, cats, birds had to be quick to avoid them, hedgehogs weren't.

Dogs will seek an easy life David49, even street dogs will always prefer somebody else to feed and care for them rather than continue with that life. Wolves have not had human contact, so are wild.

Caleo

Sewer rats are a species that benefits greatly from human activities. Cockroaches too benefit from human environments although cockroaches are so adaptable they would survive in various environments.

Cockroaches could inherit the earth.

Casdon

The one species that I think has benefitted most from humans is dogs. They are lazy, sociable creatures, and they have us sussed.

Dogs like horses, both social animals have adapted their socializing to depend on humans, allow several dogs to get out of human control and the pack instinct returns very quickly.
Wolves and African Wild Dogs depend on the structure of the pack to survive hunting for food.

God made a big mistake when he put humans on this planet. He should have chosen somewhere where we were not the dominant species.
The rest of nature all fits together very neatly. We are the odd ones out, unless we live in harmony with nature.

Sewer rats are a species that benefits greatly from human activities. Cockroaches too benefit from human environments although cockroaches are so adaptable they would survive in various environments.

I think it all comes down to territory and the drive to re-produce.

Purplepixie

Humans are the worse thing that could ever happen to animals.

We ARE animals! It is an invalid distinction.

I remember reading about Koko a female gorilla who was born and spent all her life in captivity in the USA. She had an amazing sign language vocabulary and she was able to convey her thoughts at a very sophisticated level.

I will never, ever forget the footage of when his forest habitat was being cut down in Borneo an orangutan ran along a branch and punched the digger.

I just cried. How dare they. Who do humans think they are.

The clip is still on YouTube.

In the film, the Rwandans are sharing their land. It's really beautiful.

We are, after all, just another species of mammal but find it difficult to share land and resources.