The behavioural cue of ‘flexible self-protection’ is a way to establish whether an animal feels pain, scientists say
Crickets that received the hot probe “overwhelmingly” directed their attention to the affected antenna – they groomed it more frequently, and tended to it over a longer period of time, he says. “They weren’t just agitated and flustered. They were directing their attention to the actual antennae that was hit with this hot probe.”
Pain is probably one of the original sensations. I doubt you could find any creature on Earth that doesn’t feel it. It is extremely useful for staying alive. I bet we will find out plants even feel some form of pain if we haven’t already.
Plants CAN feel pain!
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stressed-plants-cry-and-some-animals-can-probably-hear-them/
There’s been several studies that say they might, but nothing entirely conclusive. Some say that the smell of freshly cut grass might be the grass screaming in pain and warning the rest.
It’s not to warn the rest, it’s even way cooler.
The smell is supposed to attract carnivores, and tell them “Hey there’s some tasty herbivores over here” so they take care of the problem.
Supposedly that’s why we like the smell of freshly mown grass, too.
That’s cool AF, thanks.
For plants it wouldn’t make much sense since they can’t really run away or otherwise stop the pain
Also worth saying that for animals, when someone nibbles off your arm, that’s a serious injury which can strongly affect your survival chances. For plants, that’s just a regular workday.
Kind of been my hardest lesson in keeping houseplants, too. Seemingly most plants need to be nibbled on (or ya know, get cut back), otherwise they will try to grow towards the sky and hurt themselves in the process.
I’ve killed two basil plants, because you look away for one second and they just grow half a meter tall. To support the weight, they become woody at the base. And eventually, they can’t sustain the leaves at the top anymore, but when you cut them down to the woody part, they can’t grow leaves on that anymore, so RIP… 🫠