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Think about the last time you were bored — seriously and persistently bored.

Maybe you had to carry out some mind-numbing repetitive task for hours on end, or maybe you were just trapped at the airport or train station, waiting out a lengthy delay without a good conversational partner, book, or movie. You look at a clock and it seems to move at a surreal, glacial pace.

, a biologist at The Royal Veterinary College of the University of London, captures that feeling in her definition of boredom:


, where she explains that far from being a uniquely human emotion, boredom is felt by many animals ranging from farmed pigs to companion dogs that may be left alone at home for long periods.


"Chronic boredom is distressing and damaging in humans yet barely studied in animals," Burn notes. In her essay, she explores ways to measure boredom — a key first step to ameliorating it — in different animal species.

In an email to me, Burn describes how her own observations helped her start to develop this argument:


Animals, of course, can't tell us in words about their inner states. One thing I especially like about Burn's perspective is her way of distinguishing between animal boredom, on the one hand, and apathy or depression on the other. "Boredom occurs when arousal inputs are low, but arousal motivation is high," she writes in 

. Bored animals seek out ways to become unbored, whereas animals who are depressed often can't summon the will to seek out alternatives.


To some degree and in some situations, boredom may be adaptive. Boredom might motivate young animals to seek out stimulation that helps them learn about their world.


It might, too, "spark creativity and innovation in animals," a statement that reminded me of reading about the fantastically creative 

, who tied knots and created weavings through the use of strings, laces, satin ribbons, rubber bands, wool and other materials at the Ménagerie of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.


It may not, then, be the species thought to be more intelligent that we should worry about most when it comes to boredom. Burns says:


If animals — no matter their smartness quotient — are forced to endure boredom for a long time, seriously negative consequences may accrue. Marymount University psychologist 

 on trauma in chimpanzees rescued from biomedical laboratories, put it this way, via email:


When environments are extremely restrictive, even sterile, as in some laboratories, Lopresti-Goodman says, the harm may be the greatest. Animals may pull their own hair or bang their heads against their cages: "In nonhuman primates, for example," she says, "these behaviors have been equated with symptoms of psychopathology, including generalized anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders."


Burn's comment that environmental enrichment for her lab rats just wasn't enough is significant. For some animals in some captive contexts, it's extremely challenging, if at all possible, to give them mental stimulation even remotely approaching what they would experience if allowed their freedom. As the work of Canadian photographer and activist 

 powerfully conveys, I think, the notion that enrichment for zoo animals is either ubiquitous or adequate is naïve.
We need to look inward, too — at our own homes. "As for the pets we live with," Burn says, "this is all a reminder that even if animals are healthy and loved, they can still suffer — and perhaps REALLY suffer — from sameness and lack of stimulation." Taking measures to combat boredom in our animal companions may range from giving them 

, boredom "is potentially a severe and highly prevalent animal welfare issue neglected too long."


Barbara J. King is an anthropology professor emerita at the College of William and Mary. She often writes about the cognition, emotion and welfare of animals, and about biological anthropology, human evolution and gender issues. Barbara's new book is 

Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat

You can keep up with what she is thinking on Twitter: 

Lifestyle

Barbara J. King

Author

Being miserably bored is no fun, and it's a feeling animals can develop, too, including in zoos, labs -- and our own homes -- says anthropologist Barbara J. King.

Dogs and pigs get bored, too

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