Empathy for All!

When I researched BEASTLY BRAINS I was astonished by so many facts I uncovered, but one of the most fascinating was the discovery of empathy in rats. Emotional empathy is when a species is able to experience the emotional feelings of another. It is a form of emotional intelligence.

There aren't many animals outside of the primate world that exhibit empathy. The rat I included in BEASTLY BRAINS freed another rat from captivitiy and shared food with it. Pretty amazing, right? As you know empathy is a very important trait in humans. That makes the article I read this morning even more surprising. Can you imagine crocodiles exhibiting empathy? CBS News shared on a report from Journal of Threatened Taxa that involved a situation in India when a dog fled to safety in a river after being chased by a pack of animals.

The river was inhabited by marsh crocodiles known as muggers. Rather than munch the dog for lunch, two muggers led the dog to a safe spot away from the chasing pack. According to the scientists, "the curious case of a dog 'rescued' by the group of crocodiles reported here seems more on lines of empathy than altruistic behavior." Clearly, animal cognition continues to be a much needed study.

Photo Credit: Chavan, U.M & M.R. Borkar (2023)