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Chimps are Altruistic, Says Research

Published August 13, 2011 in Love For Earthlings, What's New |
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Emory University researchers say the results of their study show chimps are inherently altruistic. They trained a group of chimps to recognize tokens that were of two colours. One colour could be traded for food just for one chimp, and the other was for one chimp and another. The researchers observed almost 70 percent of the time a female chimp would choose the token which provided food for herself and one other chimp.

While this research observation might not sound too ground-breaking to some, it actually contradicts previous studies which supposedly showed chimps were selfish creatures by default. The old view was that chimps were altruistic when pressured, and would not share or look out for others unless pressure was applied. Field observations noted chimps in the wild did make altruistic actions, but research studies largely did not include this view. The Emory researchers designed a Prosocial Choice Test to simplify some of the previous approaches, which reportedly produced some unclear results.

Their design actually sounds somewhat like a research study that provided opportunities to observe elephants and show how they can cooperate to achieve a goal – usually obtaining food. They also cooperate to do other things, such as protect a baby elephant from a potential predator attack. Check out a video of adult elephants gathering to help a baby elephant stuck in a muddy stream.

“It isn’t just chimps and elephants that are capable of empathy. Since empathy is an old mammalian trait, there is no reason why the sort of altruism we describe should be unique for the primates. I expect it will be found in dogs and rats. We, and others, found it previously in monkeys: capuchin monkeys, marmosets, tamarins,” said Frans de Waal, one of the researchers. (Source:IBtimes.com)

Another chimp study this year found more evidence that chimps experience empathy. Some people do not like to consider the possibility of empathy or emotion becoming part of animals’ lives, because they adhere to the belief only humans have them, subscribing to evidence of human superiority. Science is gradually overturning that outdated belief.

Image Credit: Thomas Lersch / Wiki Commons

Adapted from an article by Jake R.

How Much Do Cats Sleep?

Published August 11, 2011 in Dr Peto Says, What's New |
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Domesticated cats are seldom accused of overexertion. The life of a house cat basically consists of four activities: playing, ruining upholstered furniture, eating and sleeping — and that last activity takes up the most time by far.

Cats are among the top sleepers in the animal kingdom, and for good reason: They are, in the wild at least, predators, and their prey does not usually want to get caught. This means that cats have to do quite a bit of chasing, and that chasing (hopefully) culminates in a huge burst of energy for the final takedown. If they do not have the energy for a successful hunt, they do not get to eat. So they have evolved to sleep (or sometimes just rest) for most of the time they do not spend hunting, saving up the strength to catch dinner.

What they eat may contribute to their sleep time, as well. They live on protein, which packs a lot of energy into a relatively small package. They need not spend endless hours grazing or foraging the way large herbivores do.

So, just how much sleep does a wild cat get? Anywhere from 16 to 20 hours a day, typically. For very young and very old cats, it is near the upper end of the range, and newborns sleep almost 24/7.

While cats do spend at least two-thirds of their lives asleep, they are not “asleep” in quite the same way humans are. They do experience both non-REM and REM sleep, but for cats, “asleep” is not “off the clock.” Cats are always on the alert, even when they are dozing.

If a strange noise wakes them up, they are almost instantly aware and fully operational. It is an ability that cats (and wild animals in general) depend on to stay safe, and fed, in nature’s Darwinian existence.

House cats, of course, have left “survival of the fittest” behind. They need not chase down their dinner. They are, on the contrary, served their meals, sometimes gourmet ones, in a timely fashion. But the instincts have not changed; house cats have the same genetic programming as feral cats.

Domesticated felines, like their wild counterparts, sleep about 16 hours a day, on a pretty regular schedule, saving up their energy for the hunt. You never do know when the gourmet food is going to run out.

Did You Know?

Sloths typically beat out most cats in terms of sleep time, coming in at an impressively slothful 19 to 20 hours a day.

    In the wild, female lions tend to sleep more than male lions. They need the extra rest because they do the hunting for the pride.

    Cats are crepuscular, not nocturnal. They are most active at dawn and dusk.

    Adapted from an article on Animal Planet

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