What can animals teach us about love?

Madeline Gunderson, USA TODAYThu, November 12, 2026 at 1:07 PM UTC

The fourth episode of "Is Love Actually?," a new five-part vodcast series from Humankind and USA TODAY, takes a look at what animals can help us learn about love. In this episode, hosts Ronnie Li and Madeline Gunderson uncover the emotional connections between humans and animals.

All five episodes premiere this World Kindness Week. You can watch or listen to the entire series now.

What can we learn about love from animals?

Our bonds with animals feel special because they transcend words. Animals can't tell us what they're thinking, but their feelings are conveyed through their body language.

In episode four, Dr. Barbara King shares deeply personal stories about her affectionate relationship with her cat, Pilar. During her cancer treatment, Dr. King would find herself comforted by Pilar after her chemotherapy sessions, as the cat sat with her on the couch. "She would respond not to my words, but the way that I held my body or the tiredness in my body or my face ... it moved me so much that she wanted to attend to me."

Dr. King is an author and emerita professor of anthropology at William & Mary, and a research fellow at PAN works. She has written several books that illuminate what compassion, empathy and grief look like across species including orca whales, orangutans and elephants. Her work dives into the complexity of animal emotions and places emphasis on examining the ethics of our relationships with other species. Her next book will focus on cats.

Dr. King stresses that understanding the thoughts and emotions of animals doesn't mean projecting human feelings onto other creatures. Instead, it requires paying close attention to animal behavior. She has documented how some animals grieve when losing a loved one. After decades of observation of a wide variety of creatures, she concludes that "love and grief aren't ours, they don't belong to us."

Do our pets love us back?

Dr. Carl Safina is an ecologist and author of multiple books about animals and our relationship to them. His work also reiterates the importance of protecting the natural world and explores the inner lives of animals. Throughout his research, he has observed that some animals do feel fondly for humans and that these positive feelings are demonstrated through behavior. "The kind of emotional love that we're talking about, what does it feel like? It feels like you want to be close to the person that you love, and our dogs show that all the time."

Not all creatures exhibit love towards people, but many demonstrate trust and attachment. In his latest book, "Alfie & Me," Dr. Safina describes the relationship he formed with a wild screech owl he named Alfie. Dr. Safina and his wife, Patricia, rehabilitated an abandoned, injured baby owl. After raising and freeing the bird, Alfie steadily became a part of the family, even raising broods in the backyard.

During his interview in episode four of "Is Love Actually?," Dr. Safina describes how Alfie enjoys receiving head scratches and would fly to be near him. His relationship with Alfie illuminates the ways we can form relationships with wild creatures, sharing space and trust.

So, what can we learn about love from the animals in our lives? Connection can grow through trust, attention and the simple act of being present. Episode four of "Is Love Actually?" invites listeners to ponder the connections they share with animals in their own lives, and what they can offer animals in return.

You can watch or listen to "Is Love Actually?" now. The series is available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Funding for the project was provided by the Greater Good Science Center and the Templeton Foundation, in conjunction with the GGSC’s “Spreading Love Through the Media” project.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What can animals teach us about love?

Source: Nature