Interesting (and the photo made me melt)! I read the blog post at Psychology today, and most of it made me go “awhhhhh.” I think my bunnies love each other 

Interesting! I think rabbits show love for one another more than any other pet species I’ve come in contact with. I’ve seen dogs and cats and other animals who like each other, snuggle together, etc, but none who show the kind of care and concern for each other that most pairs of rabbits do.

My theory is that it’s highly based on the animal’s survival needs, at least at first. Rabbits *need* to live in a large group to survive, so they’ve adapted to have a strong release of chemicals (dopamine, oxytocin, etc) when interacting with one another. Those good feelings are so reinforcing that they want to be together all the time grooming and playing with each other even when it’s not necessary for survival anymore. I don’t think people are that different, really, except that we can intellectualize love in a way animals can’t, but there are hormones at the base. I also think this explains why some animals don’t show this behavior nearly as much – it’s just not necessary for their survival – though I think all mammals are probably capable of it since they have these same feelings with their mothers.