The concept of "extra quality" in animal relationships refers to a where individuals invest in a small number of strong, stable, and highly differentiated bonds rather than a high quantity of weak connections.
For centuries, humans have drawn a hard line between us and the rest of the animal kingdom. We claimed Homo sapiens were the only species capable of love, politics, morality, and friendship. We called animal interactions "instinct" and human interactions "relationships." But over the last fifty years, ethology—the science of animal behavior—has shattered that mirror. zooseks animal extra quality