Researcher Michael Kuba says that lobsters are “quite amazingly smart animals.” Like dolphins and many other animals, lobsters use complicated signals to explore their surroundings and establish social relationships.
It is fair to say that they are not self-aware in the same way that we are, but they do react to tissue damage both physically and hormonally, so they are obviously capable of detecting pain on some level.
Research has clearly shown that lobsters, crabs, and other crustaceans can and do experience pain. Scientists have shown that their reaction to painful stimuli is more than just a reflex response and instead, they learn from painful stimuli and change their behavior.
A new study on whether or not decapod crustaceans and cephalopods are sentient found that yes, they do indeed have the ability to have feelings. It's pretty strange, when you think about it, that we routinely throw live lobsters into boiling pots of water.
If left alone, lobsters can live to be more than 100 years old. They recognize other individual lobsters, remember past acquaintances and have elaborate courtship rituals. Researchers who study lobsters say that their intelligence rivals that of octopuses—long considered to be the world's smartest invertebrate.
CHIMPANZEES. RECKONED to be the most-intelligent animals on the planet, chimps can manipulate the environment and their surroundings to help themselves and their community. They can work out how to use things as tools to get things done faster, and they have outsmarted people many a time.
It's estimated that dolphins have an IQ of around 45, this makes them one of the smartest animals in the world, and probably the smartest animal in the ocean.
Contrary to claims made by seafood sellers, lobsters do feel pain, and they suffer immensely when they are cut, broiled, or boiled alive. Most scientists agree that a lobster's nervous system is quite sophisticated.
“As it turns out, lobsters don't mate for life,” explained Mr. Wheir, a video editor in New York. Actually, male lobsters in particular are rather promiscuous. “Lobsters do have a monogamous bond, but it only lasts for two weeks,” said Trevor Corson, the author of “The Secret Life of Lobsters” (HarperCollins, 2004).
Researchers from York University argue that octopuses, crabs, lobsters, crayfish, and other invertebrates are indeed sentient and can feel pain, anger, fear, and happiness.
Lobsters have great memories. They recognize each other and remember past acquaintances.
Putting cold-blooded animals like crustaceans (or insects) into a freezer or in icy water numbs them, and they don't seem to have pain receptors that react to cold (they do live at the bottom of the ocean, after all).
Lobsters seek out 'safe spaces' when stressed
It's enough to make any lobster anxious … and yes, new research has revealed crustaceans may experience anxiety — considered a complex emotion — in much the same way humans do. And they react to it just like many of us, too — by seeking out a safe space!
Lobsters certainly do not live forever. It's not entirely clear where this myth originated, but it is a claim that persists online, often in the form of memes. While some animals, given the right circumstances, could be considered immortal, lobsters are not among them.
Whether it is believed the lobsters experience pain or not, killing the lobster just before cooking is the preferred method. Perhaps this is for the benefit of the cook as a way to minimize trauma since most people are disconnected from the killing of animals they eat.
However, it turns out everything we thought we knew about crustacean commitment is a lie. "Lobsters, by nature, are not monogamous and do not pair for life," Curt Brown, Ready Seafood's in-house marine biologist, said in a statement to E! News.
What to do if your lobster dies. Should they die and you've kept them cold, you can still cook them. According to State of Maine food safety experts, dead lobster can be consumed safely up to 24 hours from time of death, if refrigerated properly at or below 38°F (the temperature of the average home refrigerator).
Lobsters pee out of their faces to turn each other on
To get him in the mood, the female waits outside of his den, peeing in his direction out of specialized nozzles on her face. Her urine contains pheromones that let the male know she is ready to reproduce.
Studies show that lobsters who lose enough fights (inter-lobster conflict being common on the ocean floor) and therefore lose their social status, stop producing serotonin, which leads to deep depression. In other words, lobsters, like humans, become clinically depressed as they tumble down the social hierarchy.
"If an animal feels pain, you can't just chuck it into a pot of boiling water." Boiling, microwaving, thrashing, drowning and dismembering live crustaceans has been illegal in NSW since 1997.
The high pitched sound made by an overheating lobster is caused by expanding air rushing out of small holes in lobsters' bodies, like a whistle being blown. A dead lobster will “scream” just as loudly as if it was living.
While mammals and birds possess the prerequisite neural architecture for phenomenal consciousness, it is concluded that fish lack these essential characteristics and hence do not feel pain.
Other animals known for their intelligence include pigs, which can solve mazes and learn a symbolic language; rats, which can make decisions based on what they do and don't know; and bottlenose dolphins, which possess the same degree of self-awareness as elephants.
Bottlenose Dolphins
For years, dolphins have been heralded as the smartest animals on Earth, second only to humans—though some would even contest that ranking. Aside from humans, dolphins have the greatest brain-to-body ratio among animal species, including primates.
We share 99 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, so it comes as no surprise that countless hours of research have been dedicated to understanding the intelligence and behavior of our sister species. This research has firmly established that chimps are one of the most intelligent species on earth.