Which animals show empathy

His research shows there is little doubt that they comfort and care for each other. They will even play and care for dolls, seemingly pretending that the toys are infants or pals. Hughes observed one young gorilla, Nonesha, go through the gorilla version of the terrible two's. She would cry and trip, falling flat on her face. Nonesha's observant father would then "sigh deeply and pat her softly on the back," according to Hughes.

Mother Binami would then "rush over to whisk Nonesha away, looking apologetic. Crows seem to exhibit empathy, primarily for relatives. The word "orangutan" is derived from the Malay term "man of the forest," a fitting moniker for one of our closest relatives. Just as a happy or depressed person can affect the moods of other people, so too is emotion "contagious" among orangutans.

Davila Ross from the University of Portsmouth observed that orangutans are so full of empathy for others that they take on their moods.

The good news is that this seems to apply to happiness as well. Orangutans, for example, have an open-mouthed expression combined with a joyful noise that is thought to be their version of laughter. And just as humans visit the gravesites of their lost loved ones, elephants visit the bones of dead elephants for years to come. Those seemingly filthy creatures scampering in the sludge of subway stations or trashcans, rats have empathy for each other.

In a famous experiment, hungry rats that were only fed if they pulled a lever to shock their littermates refused to do so, suggesting that the rodents have a sense of empathy and compassion for their fellows. Another study published in in the journal Science found that mice would grimace when their compatriots were in pain — but only if they knew the mouse personally. Humans aren't the only ones who experience jealousy. When male bluebirds are out foraging to provide for their mate's nest, female birds may step out with another male.

Cuckolded males will beat their straying partners when they return, ripping out their feathers and snapping their beaks, according to a study detailed in the journal Science. We can only describe what they do. Meanwhile, people have spent decades watching wild animals. They have to be in order to do the things they do and make the choices that they do, and use the judgments that they use.

Many people simply assume that animals act consciously and base their belief on their own domestic animals or pets. Other people do not want animals to be conscious because it makes it easier for us to do things to animals that would be hard to do if we knew they were unhappy and suffering.

When the public sees wild animals they feel lucky to see elephants, or they might go to Yellowstone and see wild wolves. Researchers spend decades watching these creatures and see individuals.

Many researchers have names for the animals and recognize the different personalities. Some are bold; some are shy. Some are more aggressive; some are mellower; some babies are much more assertive. They see that some wolves are very assertive and aggressive and other wolves forbear.

What you see when you actually get to know wild animals is very different from a casual sighting. If you saw human beings doing nothing but drinking water or running around a field, would you think that is all there is to human beings? If you know the people drinking the water or running around, you have a different experience watching them.

Many people think that empathy is a special emotion only humans show. But many animals express empathy for each other. There are documented stories of elephants finding people who were lost. They had encased her in sort of a cage of branches to protect her from hyenas.

People have also seen humpback whales help seals being hunted by killer whales. There is a documented account of a humpback sweeping a seal on its back out of the water, away from the killer whales. These things seem extraordinary and new to us because we have only recently documented these incidents. But they have probably been doing these kinds of things for millions of years.

I tried to take a break from writing about conservation to write about what animals do in their natural lives. I focused on three of the most protected populations of animals in the world—elephants in national parks in Kenya, wolves in Yellowstone National Park, and killer whales in the Pacific Northwest; in all three cases I found that these protected animals are still being killed by people. Elephants have been undergoing a tremendous slaughter since , when the powers that be decided China could import ivory from dead elephants.

Lee, N. Njiraini, J. Poole, K. Sayialel, S. Sayialel, C. Moss and R. Douglas-Hamilton, S. Bhalla, G. Wittemyer and F. Facebook Twitter Instagram. OneKindPlanet Biology Do animals show empathy? What is Empathy?

Consoling Chimpanzees A study published in [4] discussed how consolation, or providing comfort to another individual to make them feel better, has been used to demonstrate empathy in human children.