Selfish gene theory has dominated our interpretation of animal behaviour over the last 30 years. Believing animals will only ever look after themselves, or those genetically related, it was another point of difference between us and the animal kingdom. Only homo sapien could rise above it’s preprogrammed behaviour; only humantiy could empathise and extend aid to the unrelated or other species.
After an Animal Behaviour lecture at university, I confronted my lecturer with a description of the event above, captured on video in the late 80′s. A hippo saves the life an impala caught in the jaws of a crocodile, moves it to safety away from the river, then nurses it for an hour before it dies from its injuries. It places the Impala’s head gently in it’s open mouth, comforting it as it does it’s own young: the hippo version of a cuddle.
Surely this is hard to reconcile with the selfish gene theory: risking personal harm for a completely unrelated species, who shares none of the hippo’s genes. Yes, my lecturer agreed, ‘this is obviously abnormal behaviour, perhaps the hippo was mentally diseased in some way.’ A more intuitive explanation is the possibility animals can experience empathy, but this is just me being unscientific and sentimental.
More recently, another amazing act of animal-on-animal rescue was caught on film on the freeways of Sanitago, Chile. While it’s possible, if not likely, these dogs were genetically related, it still stands as an act of horicism and in marked contrast to the description of homo sapien behaviour below.
Recent report from NYC: A homeless person, knifed when rescuing a women being mugged, was observed to bleed to death by many passers-by; none offered assistance, some taking photos. Can we still place humanity on the high moral ground, and assert our superiority, when moderm, urbanised man seems to have lost the plot?
Tags: altruism, animal behaviour, crocodile, dog, empathy, hippo, humanity, impala, selfish gene, video
No we can’t.
Countless stories of animal kindness and intelligence have been compiled by people and are published in many books, including the Smarter Than Jack series for the RSPCA. One that comes to mind is where people noticed a small skink tangled in cotton thread, in a fence. A larger skink walked up, looked at its situation from several angles, and then proceeded to pull apart the thread, until the smaller lizard was free. The number of pets that have died to save their owners is phenomenal. Animals teach people to be nicer.
here, here joanna. The animal kingdom has be charactised as dog eat dog, but in reality it’s alot more generous, caring and kind hearted than that.
i always recall observing a cat and rabbit that lived together, grooming one another and sleeping cuddled together when boarding at North Shore. Surely theres hope for world peace if predator and prey roles can be so easily over-ridden. As long as rousources are abundant, that is.