Since we can't know much of what's going on inside an animal's brain, can there still be a consensus among zoologists on whether animals feel emotions, display empathy, care, etc.? Or is it disputed? To clarify what I said since commenters asked for clarifications: Of course I don't mean SENSES (touch/vision/taste...) and also I do NOT include humans.
A suggested definition of emotion:
An emotion is a feeling such as happiness, love, fear, anger, or hatred...the part of a person's character that consists of their feelings, as opposed to their thoughts. (Collins Dictionary)
An example of emotion:
No one doubts that dogs know when they are in trouble,” writes de Waal, “but whether they actually feel guilty is a point of debate.” According to a study by Alexandra Horowitz, the canine guilty look—“lowered gaze, ears pressed back, slumped body, averted head, tail rapidly beating between the legs—is . . . not about what they have done but about how their owner reacts. If the owner scolds them, they act extremely guilty. If the owner doesn’t, everything is fine and dandy.” (Greater Good Magazine, University of California, Berkeley)
Empathy:
Empathy is the ability to share another person's feelings and emotions as if they were your own. (Collins Dictionary)
Example of empathy:
Macaques refused to pull a chain that delivered food to themselves if doing so also caused a companion to receive an electric shock.[48][49] This inhibition of hurting another conspecific was more pronounced between familiar than unfamiliar macaques, a finding similar to that of empathy in humans. (Wikipedia: Emotions in animals)
