Do animals have a sense of time?

[_____V_____]

Just wondering.

[Posher778]

Probably...

[_____V_____]

I mean, of course they dont know about hours, days, weeks, months, years etc. But they realise the "day" and "night" parts of a day, right? So in their own little way, do they have any sort of a concept of time in their brains?

Hmm...

[hammerfan]

They definitely do. My sister told me since she's been home (she lost her job in February) that right around the time I usually get home from work, Lucy and Cherokee are sitting at the front door, waiting for me. And, they know what time my nephew gets home from work and sit in front of the door waiting for him, too.

[Noah]

Absolutely agree, my cats know when I will be home. When I'm not there around the time they are, they get a little upset.

Same thing about being fed, they have certain times they wanna eat every single day, at those exact times.

Plus, they sit in the window and can see the sky throughout the different times of day.

[urgeok2]

Just wondering.

no they dont.

every fucking party i have - the animals are always late, holding the dinner up for everyone else.

no sense of time havin furry assholes.

[Papillon Noir]

Absolutely agree, my cats know when I will be home. When I'm not there around the time they are, they get a little upset.

Same thing about being fed, they have certain times they wanna eat every single day, at those exact times.

Plus, they sit in the window and can see the sky throughout the different times of day.

My cats do that too.

[milktoaste]

Many species understand time, many live life according to migratory scheduals and spawning cycles. Predatory animals usually know what times are best to hunt certain prey.

[_____V_____]

They definitely do. My sister told me since she's been home (she lost her job in February) that right around the time I usually get home from work, Lucy and Cherokee are sitting at the front door, waiting for me. And, they know what time my nephew gets home from work and sit in front of the door waiting for him, too.

Hmm...isnt that some sort of a Pavlovian reaction though?

For example, if I leave home and return back every 2-3 hours, and my dog keeps noticing this, he would be ready to welcome me by the 3rd or 4th time I ll return back. Of course, how he interprets the 2-3 hours gap would be interesting to know.


Same thing about being fed, they have certain times they wanna eat every single day, at those exact times.

Plus, they sit in the window and can see the sky throughout the different times of day.

Very interesting. Thats what I want to know - how do they get fixated on the time?


no they dont.

every fucking party i have - the animals are always late, holding the dinner up for everyone else.

no sense of time havin furry assholes.

rofl...gotta hate those Alice in Wonderland rabbits.


Many species understand time, many live life according to migratory scheduals and spawning cycles. Predatory animals usually know what times are best to hunt certain prey.

Very true. Migration and hibernation are usually more about adaptability than time concepts though.

But do they have a primitive sense of time inside their thought processes, is what I am wondering.

[cheebacheeba]

From what I've learned Id say yes they do.

Observation has showed us that animals that are effected by seperation anxiety disorder will display a gradual buildup of symptomatic behaviour when their "object" or person/persons are gone, getting progressively worse or more withdrawn/inactive as more time passes.

True, this only happens when they have said condition but it does show an ongoing awareness of the length of time.

Animals actually like to keep better routine than us humans also, in terms of feeding, sleeping and even mating times - whether or not this comes down to "instinct", part of them knows when, is when even if upon a more primal level than ourselves.

[milktoaste]

It's hard to proof that an animal understands time, without that animal understanding numerical values of time. Our dogs and cats certainly know when a short duration of time has past but they have no idea what 5 minutes means. I can tell my dog to 'stay', and he'll show a basic understanding time passing. If I tell him to count for ten seconds and then come to me, he'd be screwed. But counting and math are two diferent things.

[crabapple]

This is a perfect opportunity to post some hoochie poochie, cuddly wuddly stuff about how cats actually look like little bears, how they are just little furballs, etc. But I would never post something like that. I'm just sayin'. .....But I think the cats over here have a sense of day and night, their stomachs run on a little clock, at least. They know they get fed their "cat food" in the evening, so in the daytime, they are out hunting bugs and things and chewing on the front lawn. They hunt natural snacks, so to speak, when the sun is up. The the sun goes down and they are all ready to eat their human-made fish flavored cornmeal, their crunchy polenta or whatever you want to call it. They have a routine.