Many
studies have been done that show how one member of a species reacts to another
of the same species and these indicate that many species show empathy or, in
some cases, altruism. Of course these are all social animals, so it doesn’t
seem very surprising that a member of a group would be well aware of what its
colleagues are up too.
Cooperation
and awareness are key requirements of a social group that benefits from being
in a group over and above being a smaller part of the general target for
predators. However, aiding a colleague with no expectation other than they may
be paying it forward, so to speak is indicative of a sophisticated cognitive
process that is worthy of study.
Yamamoto
et al studied mother chimpanzees and
their offspring helping each other on request and wrote up the work for this
week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (1). With this
experiment, mother and offspring were in different rooms with a pass through.
In one room was a drink that needed a straw to get at the fruit juice. The
other room had a selection of seven different ‘tools,’ one of which was a
straw.
The
chimps with the tools were good at finding the straw and handing it over when
requested. However when the drink was hidden from the tool stockiest, they tended
to hand out the wrong tool. A walking stick was a favorite, but it wouldn't help
with drinking juice.
The
general conclusions from the study were that chimpanzees will help when
requested, but only when requested. They are quite happy to watch the other
struggle if not asked to help. Maybe that’s not that surprising when we
remember how closely our DNA tells us we are related.
However,
like us, when asked they will often step up to the plate and hand out tools.
Unfortunately, they don’t have our language skills and the helper has to see
what the problem is if they are going to be of any use.
