Animals teach us essential life lessons through their behavior and instincts. From loyalty in dogs and resilience in ants, to the teamwork of bees and the patience of cats, they offer insights into emotional intelligence, survival, and coexistence. Elephants show us the power of family bonds, while birds remind us of the value of freedom and adaptability. Observing animals helps us reconnect with nature, understand empathy, and respect the delicate balance of life.

Shahid Akhter, Editor, Healthyouonline, spoke to various pet parents to uncover the powerful animal instincts that we, as humans, can embrace to enhance our health, habits, and way of life.

Monkey 

Our ancestors were monkeys, yes, so let's mimic them in our lifestyle. What do the monkeys do? You don't see them eating burgers or pizzas or non-veg. They eat fruits, salads, and vegetables. So that's a trick to understand.  The second trick is that monkeys enjoy themselves. Thirdly, they are not sedentary. They jump from one branch to the other. Lifestyle modification in terms of mimicking a monkey is a great idea. You don't find obese monkeys. You find giant monkeys, but you don't have obese monkeys. Obesity is something that inherently has come to humans. So that is the other thing that you need to take care of. Take care of diabetes. Take care of your blood pressure. Take care of your lifestyle.

Dog

No matter how bad your day was or how many days you were out of the city, the moment you come back, the pet greets you with a grand welcome. That's something very exceptional. I have a Labrador and another, a mixed breed. Every day I'll learn from them because I spend a lot of time talking to them, and, basically, it's fascinating what they teach you. One is that they don't expect anything from you, simply zero expectations! They just give you a volcano of love. I mean, that's massive. There's lots to learn from the animal kingdom.

The one beautiful thing that I've observed about our dogs is that these fellows will eat only when they require. He will not eat a single morsel. Even if you give him his most tempting food, he will not eat that. This is a huge realisation that human beings must have. So a simple thing for me that we can learn from a dog is not to overeat. If you look at them when they are not well, they just fast. They will do nothing but fast, which is the best way to recover.

Elephant

Elephants are herd animals. They protect their young ones, regardless of where they go. I think that's something that we can learn from them. They are strong grandmothers, something that we have so much in common with human beings. They really don't care whose calf it is as long as they need to live to protect them. I think these are some of the family values that we can learn from them.

Peacock

I had 13 peacocks, and they were all tamed in the sense I fed them myself. The most important thing is that if they get confidence in you, they become so affectionate; they get attached to you. If I go somewhere and come back after two or three days, they all will make noise together. That is welcoming back.

Crow

If you give food to one crow, immediately the crow will invite others to come and share. We should learn this attitude of sharing from the crow.

Tortoise

Whenever the external influences come to disturb or harm the tortoise, they simply recoil. And it can stay there like this, continuous, as long as the disturbances are there from outside. The result? It has a long life. And this is what we have to learn if we want to have a comfortable, happy, and wonderful healthy life for 100 years easily. Then you have to bring this animal instinct.