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Animals (too) can fall in love!

Seeing animals cuddling, petting, and playing together sometimes makes you wonder, "Can animals love?" » . Now we have the answer:Paul Zak, a professor at the University of California (USA), discovered that animals also felt the feeling of love.

At an animal shelter in Arkansas, researchers on his team took a blood sample from a dog and a goat that frequently played together, chasing after each other, bouncing side-by-side or cuddling, says The Atlantic. “We took two swabs from them. The first when they were playing in a pen, the second when they were separated, and we compared the differences."

The result is edifying:when the dog is with the goat, the level of oxytocin, the hormone of happiness and love, increases by 48% in his blood. And in the goat, it is even equivalent to that of a man in the presence of his great love.

More good news:your pets really love you too! The researchers reproduced the experiment on animals in the presence of men and women. Conclusion:after playing together for 15 minutes, our animal friends are experiencing a big surge of oxytocin.

The researchers also answered another existential question that you were asking yourself. Yes, according to the results, dogs secrete much more oxytocin than cats in the presence of humans…