Altruism in Animals - Examples of Animal Altruism

Examples of Animal Altruism

• Dogs often adopt orphaned cats, squirrels, ducks and even tigers.
• Dolphins support sick or injured animals, swimming under them for hours at a time and pushing them to the surface so they can breathe.
• Mongooses support elderly, sick, or injured animals
• Wolves and wild dogs bring meat back to members of the pack not present at the kill.
• Male baboons threaten predators and cover the rear as the troop retreats.
• Gibbons and chimpanzees with food will, in response to a gesture, share their food with others of the group. Chimpanzees will help humans and conspecifics without any reward in return.
• Bonobos have been observed aiding injured or handicapped bonobos.
• Vampire bats commonly regurgitate blood to share with unlucky or sick roost mates that have been unable to find a meal, often forming a buddy system.
• Raccoons inform conspecifics about feeding grounds by droppings left on commonly shared latrines. A similar information system has been observed to be used by common ravens.
• In numerous bird species, a breeding pair receives support in raising its young from other "helper" birds, including help with the feeding of its fledglings. Some will even go as far as protecting an unrelated bird's young from predators
• Most mammal carnivores like wolves or dogs have a habit of not harming pack members below certain age, of opposite sex or in surrendering position (in case of some animals, the behavior exists within entire species rather than one pack).
• Vervet Monkeys give alarm calls to warn fellow monkeys of the presence of predators, even though in doing so they attract attention to themselves, increasing their personal chance of being attacked.
• Walruses have been seen adopting orphans who lost their parents to predators.
• Some termites and ants release a sticky secretion by fatally rupturing a specialized gland. This autothysis altruistically aids the colony at the expense of the individual insect. For example, defending against invading ants by creating a tar baby effect. This can be attributed to the fact that ants share their genes with the entire colony, and so this behaviour is evolutionarily beneficial (not necessarily for the individual ant but for the continuation of its specific genetic make-up).
• Meerkats often have one standing guard to warn whilst the rest feed in case of predator attack.
• African buffalo will rescue a member of the herd captured by predators.
• Lemurs of all ages and of both sexes will take care of infants unrelated to them.